Tourists say ‘NO’ to Hyderabad

The city’s tourist season, which began this month, seems to have taken off on a dull note. With the Telangana crisis still looming large over Hyderabad, the footfall of visitors to the Nizam’s land this year has dropped drastically, say industry observers. And the proof of this lies in the poor number of bookings, that hotels in the city have registered for this otherwise high-on-business month. Hoteliers rue how apart from a few small-budget tours and low-key corporate meets there is nothing more on their platter for the next few weeks. In fact, even enquiries for the festive season that kickstarts later this month are far and few this time around.

This severe slump in business, industry sources say, is all set to further hit the earnings of the hospitality sector that has been reeling under losses since 2009, thanks to the ‘T’ turmoil. “This season brings at least 40% of our annual revenues,” said G Ravish Daway, general manager, Quality Inn Residency who recently lost business worth Rs 8 lakh owing to the ongoing unrest. Daway added, “We used to get at least 10 group bookings during this time every year. In 2010, it dropped to less than half of that and this year we have no confirmation on any booking. People are not eager to make advance payments and even enquiries have reduced to a trickle.”

Besides families and student groups, even corporates seem to be staying away from Hyderabad this season, say hoteliers. The conference halls of Hyderabad’s hotels that until sometime ago were seen brimming with activity during the month of September, are all lying vacant now. “Previously, every star hotel (three to five) had at least three such meets lined up for this month alone. But this time, there are barely any corporate meets that are happening in the city. In fact, the rate of cancellation is very high,” said Pradip Dutt, general secretary, Hotels and Restaurants Association of Andhra Pradesh, whose hotel Inner Circle too has just one conference booking for September. “Whether it will eventually materialise, however, still remains to be seen,” said Dutt, general manager of the hotel, echoing the sentiments of most other hoteliers in town who rue how the 15-20% discount on tariffs too has failed to lure tourists this year. Instead, they say, people are withdrawing their reservations at the last minute.

“We have lost at least a couple of bookings this month alone. While there still some business happening at the hotel, it is indeed slow this time around. We surely could have done with much more bookings,” said Anand Ganesan, general manager of Mercure.

Even state tourism authorities admit to this downward growth of the sector but maintain that all hope is not lost yet. Pointing out how conventions in the city, planned well in advance, are going on as scheduled, officials say that Hyderabad is not off the corporates’ radar completely. “We even expect the tourist footfall to improve over the next few months and peak, as usual, in December when NRIs come to India for their Christmas break. So, even if the start has been slow, we are hopeful of good business in the coming weeks,” said Jayesh Ranjan, secretary, tourism.

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