Lockdown: Tourism industry severely affected

Kolkata: The tourism sector that had gradually started opening up since the month of June but has been hit again with strict containment measures imposed in certain areas of different districts in the state with the COVID-19 situation not presenting a rosy picture.

In the current month, a number of districts like Purulia, Bankura, East Midnapore etc in south Bengal while Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar etc in North Bengal has witnessed strict lockdown imposed by the respective district administration's. Complete lockdown has been imposed through out Bengal twice a week (June 23 and June 25) and already June 29 has been earmarked for lockdown.

"I am not against lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid virus. But tourism is such a sector which when closed suddenly after being put into operation has a negative impact not only in the tourists' mind but also on the stakeholders in the sector. The tourist inflow that was slow but steady has again been badly hit," said Nilanjan Basu, general secretary of Travel Agents' Association of Bengal. The state Tourism department had opened up ten of its resorts- five in the month of June and another five on July 1 during the unlock period.

On June 8, the resorts at Diamond Harbour, Bishnupur, Maithon, Rangabitan (Birbhum) and Tilabari (Dooars) were operationalised while in July the resorts at Dighali (Digha), Bakkhali, Jhargram. Barrackpore and Morgan House (Kalimpong) were opened up.

"We have been having 25 to 30 percent of occupancy in our resorts. However, the district administration after reviewing the current COVID situation has imposed containment measures and we have been compelled to close down two of our resorts namely

Dighali in Digha and Morgan House in Kalimpong," said a senior official of the state Tourism department , adding that the refund against booking has already been made to the consumers. Darjeeling which was opened up for tourists from July is also presently witnessing lockdown from July 25 to August 1 after a sudden spurt in positive cases was witnessed.

The local people have the impression that the arrival of tourists have led to the

spike.

"We are looking at fresh guidelines from the state government so that we can plan accordingly on opening up the sector again," said Sandipan Ghosh, general secretary of Eastern Himalayas Travel & Tour Operators' Association.