gopalakrishna

It’s not only the financial sector that is keenly watching the stock markets; the tourism sector too is hoping for some respite. The crash on Dalal Street and the US slowdown has started showing on the balance sheet of tourism companies.



Empty counters have been a rare sight at travel agencies in the last three years. Tourism has been growing at about 30% annually. But in the last two months, the growth rate has fallen to just 5%. In fact, traffic into the country has seen a small dip of 2-3 %, most of which is because of fewer people travelling into India from the US. Not only is leisure travel from the US down, but business travel too has seen a small fall and with the stock markets in the country playing pooper. Indians, too, are taking fewer holidays.



“People who make a lot of money in the stock market usually take many more short holidays, like the weekend that just went. But now, those people like day traders are not likely to do so,” said Ashwini Kakkar, Vice-Chairman, Mercury Travels.



Domestic travel too is showing signs of cooling off! Until last year, hotels and airlines were choc-o-blocked all the way up to March. But this year, average load factors in January and February have been in the 70's, that is about 10% lower than last year. Most hotels too have seen a similar dip. Travel companies are still optimistic.



“We hope domestic travel will improve in the next 2-3 weeks. But right now, it’s a dip of about 2-3%,” said Veena Patil, CMD, Kesari Tours.



These are just initial numbers and the travel community is divided on the forecast for the rest of the year. Some say the US slowdown and the stock market fall could severely impact growth of the tourism industry, since this is the first expense that people cut down on. Others believe that come September, numbers will start looking promising.