THIRUVANTHAPURAM: A consensus has emerged at the third International Congress on Kerala Studies on the need to insulate the tourism sector from the impact of strikes and hartals.
The issue was first raised by Tourism Director M Sivasankar while making the first presentation at the session on 'Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges'.
"The recent auto and taxi strike had posed problems for tourists. Agitations that affect the mobility of tourists at a time of intense competition do not augur well for tourism growth,'' Sivasankar said. He then spoke about the agony the tour operators went through during the strike.
Chamber of Commerce president E M Najeeb also did not hide his displeasure.
"The recent auto taxi strike had given a bad name to Kerala tourism. You cannot hold the state to ransom for minor insignificant reasons when people have invested over `1,000 crore. Political parties across the spectrum should have commitment towards the state, they should also have ownership of the state,'' he said. Some senior CPM leaders reacted sharply but acknowledged that tourism needs to be protected.
"Strikes and bandhs cannot be done away with. If you people are dreaming of a tourism growth without strikes and hartals, it won't happen till the end of the world,'' the outspoken CPM Idukki district secretary M M Mani said and added: "But we should have an arrangement to protect tourists from harm during these bandhs.''
Former Alappuzha municipal chairman Chitharanjan said that flash strikes should be avoided in the tourism sector. CPM Kozhikode district secretary T P Ramakrishnan was extremely bitter about Najeeb's observations on bandhs.
"Najeeb is worried only about tourism growth, not about the problems faced by the common man. Auto and taxi drivers had to strike because petrol prices had been hiked by the Centre,'' he said.
Chitharanjan then suggested that the Tourism Department should urgently convene a meeting of trade unions to thrash out ways to protect the tourism sector from hartals and strikes.
Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac, who also said that hartals and strikes could not be done away with for the sake of tourism growth, too wanted a consensus to be arrived at by trade unions on how to deal with the tourism sector during hartals.
KTDC Chairman Cheriyan Philip conceded that hartals could not be wished away but said that it would be advisable to keep the tourism sector untouched by flash strikes.