Hotels in Sudder St, Marquis St in dire straits as tourist footfall dwindles

Kolkata: Hotels in Sudder Street and Marquis Street are incurring huge loss as tourists and other guests from Bangladesh are not coming to the city due to passenger movement in all international borders of the state being suspended.

Usually a good number of Bangladeshi nationals come to Bengal for various purposes like medical treatment and business. They generally stay in the hotels and guest houses located on Sudder Street and Marquis Street, as those areas are in the heart of the city.

Also, the essential commodities and food which Bangladeshi nationals prefer are easily available there. But due to spread of COVID 19, the number of foreign tourists including Bangladeshi nationals has decreased in the past one week.

Several people from the neighbouring country, who had come to the city for treatment, have left in the past three days. According to the hotel and guest house owners, as passenger movement in the borders has been suspended, no tourists are coming. As a result they are facing huge loss.

Nearly half of the rooms usually stay occupied during this time of the year. But due to the panic of COVID 19, almost 90 percent of the rooms have been lying vacant since the past one month. Those who checked in either had urgent work or medical emergency. Sajid Ahmed, an official of Astoria Hotel, stated that only three rooms are occupied at the moment.

Jagjit Singh, owner of Continental Hotel located on Sudder Street, said: "We are mostly dependent on Bangladeshi nationals. In the present situation no one has been coming since the past one week. We are incurring almost 90 percent loss while running the hotel."

Hotel Angina located on Marquis Street has only one room occupied. Manager of the hotel Arjun Chunari said that they are thinking of closing down the hotel for a few days, as no one has checked-in in the past two days.

On Friday only around three rooms in each of the hotels in the area were found occupied. Those who are staying are also about to leave within one or two days. Hotel owners are also trying to offer much less than the regular tariff to recover from the loss as much as possible.

This apart, transport operators running bus services from Petrapole border are also incurring huge loss. Nihar Bose, an official of a private transport company, said: "As passenger movement in the borders has been suspended, our business is not functioning at all. Daily three buses used to run between Petrapole border and Esplanade. At present the services have been suspended. But we have to keep maintaining the offices and pay the staff without earning anything."