According to confirmed data, hundreds of international tourists who had booked a trip in March to Tamil Nadu, a south Indian State, are forced to put off their plans. The Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) outbreak has thrown the tourism sector into a crisis in India.
While some foreign travellers could not make their trips to India due to travel restrictions from coronavirus-hit countries, many are cancelling their tour programmes due to fear surrounding the virus outbreak. Coronavirus has proved a disaster for the tourism sector leading to large scale cancellations not seen in the last two decades.
It is said that at least 3,000 tourists who were scheduled to visit Tamil Nadu and Kerala, kick-starting their India tour from Chennai, have called off their plans. There were six groups of Italian tourists each consisting of 25-27 individuals and two Japanese groups.
Several tour operators and hoteliers in India are suffering from monetary losses. Due to the virus spreading across the world, the Indian Union government had announced that people travelling from Korea, Iran and Italy or having a travel history to these countries since February 10 may be quarantined for 14 days on arrival in India. Not just travel restrictions, many do not want to venture out of their country out of fear over contracting the disease.
Tamil Nadu has received the highest number of inbound tourists in the country consecutively for the last four years. The peak season for foreign travellers is between October and March. More than 20,000 inbound tourists would have booked their trips for March. Most of these travellers are from European countries including France, Italy and the UK, besides North America.
Blogs
