KOCHI: The hotel and restaurant industry in the state continues to reel under huge losses as the ban on dining-in wiped out over 60% of its business, forcing many hotel owners to turn to other means for livelihood. While the government has opened most other sectors, the hoteliers said their pleas to allow dining-in with adequate precautions including social distancing and disposable plates and table sheets have fallen on deaf ears.
“Nearly, half a lakh of people in the state depend on the hotel and restaurant industry. It has been more than four months since the government imposed restrictions on dining in. This has caused a huge loss as most of the hotels are fully dependent on dine-in than parcel services. Only 15% to 20% of the hotels in Kerala have online parcel services,” said G Jayapal, general secretary of Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA).
Top officials of KHRA have held several rounds of talks with the state government in the last few months requesting the latter to lift the restrictions on dine-in service. However, they have not got any response so far. As a measure to control the test positivity rate (TPR) and increasing Covid cases in the state, a second lockdown was imposed in April. Later, relaxations were given to most industries. Yet, the hotel sector has not received any attention, they complain.
The hotel and restaurant veterans argue that there has not been a decline in TPR or Covid cases despite banning dine-in at the hotels. Also, the last time when dine-in was allowed, any spike triggered due to the irresponsible behaviour from any of the hotels was reported. “We don’t see a point in continuing with the restrictions. Neither the number of daily Covid cases nor the TPR has come down by continuing the restrictions in the hotel industry alone when tourist spots and other public places are open,” Jayapal pointed out.
According to health experts, the mask is one of the key weapons that prevent contracting the virus. “Restaurants and hotels have a closed environment and not many of the hotels will be spacious enough to maintain social distancing. Moreover, while dining in, people will have to take off their masks,” said Dr Mathews Numpeli, Ernakulam district programme manager, National Health Mission.
For Sajan S, his small roadside hotel business near Shoranur is staring at a huge loss. “We have parcel service but it’s not making any profit. I made business mostly through dine-in. The government is not considering our situation,” said Sajan. Sajan, who has been in the hotel business for more than 30 years, says he sees no hope of a revival of his business anytime soon.
Ayapal said several hotel owners have turned to other means of livelihood. “Nearly 10 hotel owners have died by suicide due to the loss over the last few months. The mental trauma and pending loan instalments and GST have forced many to take such extreme steps,” he added.