KOCHI: With Covid-19 shattering the tourism industry in Kochi as well as in Kerala, domestic tourism remains the last hope once the pandemic spread ceases to a certain extent. With tour operators giving up hope of regaining the confidence of foreign tourists with the situation yet to improve abroad, at least tourist from other states can be attracted to visit Kerala once the state borders are opened in the near future, they feel.Tour operators said foreign tourists usually finalise their tour plans from October to January before May. With uncertainty over Covid-19 continuing, no bookings from abroad have been made so far.
“Many countries have placed travel restrictions for several months. Usually, we get inquiries for the year-end tourism season by now. We also submit tour programmes for attracting foreign tourists in April and May. But with all our operations down, no foreign tourist bookings are made,” Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) Kerala Chapter chairman Paulose Mathew said.
In the current scenario, the tourism industry can only pin its hopes on domestic tourists. However, with existing Covid-19 protocol for travel, the cost of packages goes up.“Kerala, which emerged as a model in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, can attract domestic tourists from other parts of India. There will be keen travellers who travel abroad once or twice annually. They can be attracted to Kerala. The challenge is that cost of travel is expected to rise with the existing Covid-19 protocol. If the guidelines state that a flight or bus should accommodate passengers one-third of their capacity, charges will certainly be higher,” he said.
A Kerala Tourism official said domestic tourists footfalls helped the state in crisis earlier. With events like Kochi Muziris Biennale in December, tourists from other states are expected to visit Kochi if Covid-19 scare ends. “When tourism sector was hit by Nipah outbreak and floods, revival was made possible due to high domestic tourist arrival. Post Covid-19, tourism promotion activities will be held in other states.
Even other tourism stakeholders are expected to set their focus on other states during this hard time,” he said. Tour operators who booked air tickets for outbound tourists are agitated about no refund provided by airlines till now. Though the Ministry of Civil Aviation ordered refund for tickets issued during the lockdown, tour operators claim the issue is yet to be addressed by the government.
“When we approached the ministry for immediate refunding of tickets cancelled since early March, it came out with an order directing airlines to issue refund for tickets booked during the lockdown. Tour agencies book tickets three months before travel and such cases were not considered. In tour packages, 50 per cent cost is travel expense for which we have to pay in advance. With no refund, most tour operators are facing business loss. There is no government-level aid for tourism stakeholders who were the first to be hit by Covid-19 and to face its long-term consequences,” Paulose said.