BHUBANESWAR: The tourism and hospitality sector in Odisha finally opened its gates to guests on Monday after three months of the pandemic lockdown. At the tourism hub of Puri, however, the stakeholders are apprehensive that business may not pick up pace unless the weekend shutdown is lifted and Srimandir reopened.
Almost all the 800-odd hotels in Puri got a handful of diners and bookings on the day. While a call on reopening of Srimandir is yet to be taken, the Blue Flag beach from Digabareni square to the Mayfair hotel which is another major crowd-puller, remained closed. Only the Niladri beach stretch near it reopened with Covid restrictions.
The local hotel industry saw a big drop in the number of bookings during both the first and second waves of the pandemic. The stakeholders said the graded unlocking is a much- needed respite but the industry may not revive completely until the weekend shutdown is lifted as Puri receives that maximum number of tourists only during the weekends.
“This half-hearted reopening of hotels is actually an expensive affair for small and medium hoteliers. With the government allowing reopening of hotels and tourism sites, all our staff have joined but under the new guidelines, we have to stop operations by 7 pm every day for closing down the facilities by 8 pm. Besides, there will be no business on weekends. It will still be difficult for us to do adequate business and pay all our staff”, said Yugabrata Kar, a homestay and hotel owner.
Members of the Puri Hotel Owners Association said so far, only few people who were vaccinated with two doses booked their stay in hotels, both during weekdays and weekends. “Many of our members have decided to offer a 30 per cent discount on general hotel bookings, B2B bookings and dine-in to attract more visitors”, said Raj Kishore Patra, general secretary of the association and MD of Holiday Resort. The government in its unlock guidelines has allowed hotels, restaurants and bars to reopen with 50 per cent capacity.