Coronavirus fear taking a toll on tourism business in Canacona

Team Herald

CANACONA: After the collapse of Thomas Cook last year the hospitality industry in Goa in general and Canacona in particular was trying to come out of that shock.

The rates of rooms were halved which saw some relief as the drop in foreign tourists was made up by the arrival of domestic tourists.

But the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of the tourism season has not only broken the backbone but now with mass cancellations of bookings the hotels in Canacona stare at early winding up of their business to save on the overheads and other costs.

Tourism stakeholders in Canacona said that while the industry is already reeling under lot of pressure, the latest mass cancellations of bookings by both domestic and overseas tourists have added to the woes and the tourism business operators stare at mounting losses this season.

Many tourism business operators said that the foreign guests who had booked rooms in advance are cancelling their bookings as there is no clarity on what strictures their country will enforce to get into their country in coming weeks due to COVID-19 scare.

Jack Fernandes, president of a NGO ‘Goenkar’ and a tourism stakeholder said that his hotel website is witnessing cancellations since last week.

“Due to drop in foreign tourists, we had slashed our rates by half of what we were charging last year; with that, the month of February brought some relief for us but with mass cancellations of bookings since last week, we are staring at losses this year too,” Fernandes said.

The situation is no different for other accommodation providers in Patnem, Palolem and Agonda where most of the tourists prefer to stay; they have also witnessed drastic drop in business as well as cancellations since the beginning of March.

Many tourism related business operators agreed that this season was a bit delayed, but February saw more than 50 percent occupancy but again with most of the Indian states issuing advisories to their citizens to avoid unnecessary travel due to COVID-19 threat, the guests who had booked accommodation in Canacona have also started cancelling their bookings.

“This has added more distress as the economy of the taluka is driven by how the tourism fares in Canacona,” Fernandes said.