Despite a lull in tourist arrivals in the first two weeks of December due to heavy rains and the floods in Chennai, the hospitality sector in Puducherry has bounced back strongly to register near total occupancy across hotels and resorts for the New Year festive season.
With a considerable increase in bookings since December 10, the industry is upbeat about generating good profits for the New Year. Over 95% of hotels and resorts have been booked and with an estimated upward trend, the occupancy is expected to touch 100% in the next few days, say hoteliers.
According to Ganesh Ramamoorthy, General Manager of Hotel Atithi TGI Grand, “The occupancy rates have touched 100%. We have a mix of both domestic and international tourists who are willing to spend and travel and explore Puducherry. Though the rise in tourist influx is a good sign for the industry, the revenue has been a little dull this year when compared with the previous year.”
“The rains and subsequent floods in Chennai in the first week of December hit the arrival of tourists to Puducherry. Chennai has become a major transit destination, where tourists from various States plan their trips to Puducherry. But the floods in Chennai led to cancellation of confirmed room bookings resulting in a loss of ₹ 10 lakh in the first week of December. But the situation improved after December 15 and the Christmas season has been good for us. This upward trend is expected to continue till the New Year,” he said.
M. Makendra Kumar, General Manager of Radisson Resort Pondicherry Bay said, “Occupancy has been really good in line with Puducherry’s growing stature as a year-long destination attraction. The demand increases during long weekends and for festivities. This festive season was very well planned and we started receiving bookings as early as three months ago. The occupancy is poised to touch 100 percent. Though there was a brief lull due to the floods in Chennai, the tourist arrivals have picked up very quickly.”
The huge footfall in tourist arrival during the last three days itself was reflected in the sharp spike in collections at Chunnambar Boat House. The collections have gone up to ₹ 10 lakh per day at the boat house. On Saturday and Sunday alone, around 6,000 entry tickets were sold at the boat house.
According to Anand Gandhiraj, secretary of the Hotels Association of Pondicherry, “Most hotels have reasonably good occupancy. A bulk of the visitors are domestic tourists and forecast is for the year to end on a promising note for most of the players.”
