KOCHI: A year on since the Centre staged a surgical ambush on an unwary economy at the stroke of midnight, the tourism sector in the state is still grappling to limp back to normalcy. Dry ATMs, winding queues and cussing tourists now linger like a bad memory, yet the scars are redolent of a policy that wreaked havoc in the tourism sector of the state. For Jose Pradeep, director, Hotel Yuvarani Residency and Honorary Secretary of Kerala Travel Mart, demonetisation is a recurring nightmare that almost killed the tourism industry.
"The tourists had money in their bank account, yet they could not use it here. We had to provide them our credit cards. Most hotel bookings were cancelled due to this. Tourist footfall also slumped. Demonetisation was rolled out by the government without considering its possible fallout on various sectors," he said.According to Jose, the ripples of demonetisation still exist as far as the tourism industry is concerned. "If you take domestic tourist footfall. People from Gujarat and Maharastra visited the state in huge numbers. But now the agents claim due to the impact of demonetisation, people are chary of making such trips.
"Then they launched the GST. It further took a toll on the industry. Still, there is uncertainty looming around GST among people engaged in the tourism sector." Kerala Homestay and Tourism Society (HATS) director M P Sivadathan said the GST and the note ban have burnt the pockets of tourists who now spend less after arriving here. "Most of them opt for a short stay. Earlier, the tourists who came to Kochi would also visit Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzha and Wayanad. But now they just stay for a couple of days in Kochi and return," he said.
Sivadathan said in the initial days, only the footfall of foreign tourists was affected. But now even the domestic tourist influx has gone down. "Usually, domestic tourists make up for the low turnout of foreign tourists to the state. However, this year the tourists from other states have also considerably diminished," he said.
Ernakulam Tourism Joint Director P G Sivan said the impact of the note ban has tapered off now. "Though the figures for tourist arrival can only be provided by our research wing, we don't think the impact of demonetisation still exists. We think the number of tourist arrivals is normal," he said.