PRAVEENA SHARMA
As the intense West Asia conflict enters its 14th day, its rav aging effect is being felt by Goa’s hotel industry and the tourism sector, which is hit by a huge number of international flight can cellations, rising airfares, shortage of commercial LPG, rising cost of living and clouds of uncertainty. Hotels across the State are grappling with room booking cancellations and dipping reservations for April and May. As of now, this is predominantly done by international customers but as the Iran-Israel-US war progresses and crude oil prices surge — briefly breaching over $100 per barrel and projected to cross $200 per barrel — domestic tourists are also steering away from under taking leisure trips to Goa.
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Vinay Albuquerque, man aging partner at Indy Hos pitality and a director in Alcon Victor Group compa nies, estimates bookings by foreign tourists are down by almost 80 percent even as the number of cancella tions by domestic tourists rises daily. Albuquerque’s Indy Hos pitality is a hotel manage ment and consulting agen cy that operates, develops, and brands upscale, inde pendent boutique hotels and resorts. “Inbound (foreign trav ellers arriving in Goa) has come down by about 80 percent. Booking by do mestic travellers is still there but we are seeing a lot of cancellations every day. For April and May, there are room bookings happening but not at the pace they were happening prior to the war,” he said. According to him, book ings at his hotels and re sorts are down by 15 per cent in March this year compared to last March.
He is concerned about the coming months April and May. Hotels in Goa usually witness brisk bookings during these two months because of summer holidays. “March is down by 15 percent because people had al ready booked and were scheduled to arrive. A lot of wed dings are happening in South Goa. That is very much on. What is a huge concern (for us) is April and May. You are not seeing any uptick in bookings during this period. They’re (bookings) coming but it’s like one or two (room bookings) at a time,” he shared. Immediately after the Iran war outbreak on February 28, a high-end hotel in Calangute saw cancellations of over 450 rooms by Iranian tourists, who visit Goa around Navroz fes tival in March. Last year, three Iranian charter flights flew into Goa bringing over 400 tourists. “We get between 350 and 475 room nights during this time every year from Iranian customers. That has been wiped out. Even though it was blocked it did not material ise. For me, what has gone out of my reservation system is close to 400-420 room nights in just 15 days of March,” said the hotelier, who did not want to be named. On the brighter side, hotels have seen extensions of stays by foreign tourists as they wait for flights to be repatriated to their country. “There are also people extending (stays) because they cannot go back. So, that is a positive coming out of this but if you see that does not come anywhere near the loss due to cancellations. We must be getting 100 stay extensions against over 400 room night cancellations,” said the owner of a four-star hotel in Calangute. Another silver lining for him was that Indians, who usu ally travelled abroad, were now looking to travel within the country because of the war. He has not seen that reflected in the bookings for April and May, which are much lower than last year. Hotels are also seeing their room tariffs fall due to lower booking rates. “Room tariffs are completely down, especially if you look at April. I would say they’re down 50 percent compared to last April. If a room was getting Rs 20,000 per night last year, it is down to around Rs 8,000 this year,” said Albu querque. Ernest Dias, chief operating officer of Travel Corpora tion of India (TCI), said several airlines and charters that fly over Gulf airspace have cancelled flights. He said due to the social unrest in Iran, which preceded the war; Goa was experiencing some impact from the conflict in the Middle East. “We had two charter flights coming to Goa from Po land that got cancelled. They were scheduled to arrive on March 2. They could not come because they had a stopo ver at Ras Al Khaimah (RAKin United Arab Emirates) for refuelling. We had to extend the stay of all the clients in Goa by two more nights and then flights came directly from Warsaw. They stopped over in Egypt instead of RAK,” said Dias. He said a “sizeable” number of flights from Europe, which fly via Qatar and other Gulf nations, were either cancelled or postponed. However, those that do not use Gulf airspace were not impacted. “We have charters coming, even now, from the UK. Then, we have the Russian charters and the Kazakh charters. They’re not affected because they’re not coming via the Gulf. They take a longer route now,” said Dias. He said Rus sian tourists have bounced back from the Ukraine war. “The Ukraine war doesn’t impact Russia. The Russians are bold people. They still travel a lot,” quipped Dias. Nilesh Shah, former president of the Travel and Tour ism Association of Goa (TTAG), expects shortage of fuel and rising crude prices to impact the cost of living, which could see decline travel spend and adversely hit the tour ism sector. “When we talk about domestic tourists coming into Goa, we can expect a slowdown due to the present scenario where all your costs are going up. Your food cost will go up. Your fuel cost is going up. So, people planning a holiday will either postpone or cancel it,” he predicted
