Coronavirus hits hotel business in Delhi

Coronavirus has adversely affected the hotel business in the national capital as the number of foreigners and domestic passengers staying have drastically reduced, said Hotel Association, Paharganj.

"This is a 100 per cent occupancy season, but there is not more than 10-20 per cent occupancy now due to Coronavirus," said Ajay Kumar Aggarwal, president of Hotel Association, Paharganj.

"The hotel business works mainly for 6 months in a year but due to the coronavirus scare, there is not more than 20 per cent occupancy. We are only dependent on Indian tourists now," Aggarwal told ANI.

He also said that the coronavirus scare has affected the inflow of both international and domestic tourists.

"Our foreigner season begins in October and lasts till March and this is the period when we earn the most. However, this year since the end of January the hotel business has fallen due to coronavirus," said Param Mittal, general secretary of the Hotel Association.

He also said, "From April the domestic tourism would start but this year we have already received some cancellations."

One of the tourists, Nicole from Italy, told ANI that in India the coronavirus is not yet a big emergency.

She said, "It looks like in India there are only 60 coronavirus positive cases. At the moment I think this is not a big emergency as from the health point of view many people die of pneumonia, tuberculosis every day in India."

"However, the decision to cancel visas of foreign tourists by the Indian government is good as it will stop the spread of coronavirus," she added.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Magow, Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, said that the summer holiday season might see fewer bookings especially for international travel.

"The period between February till the end of March is typically a lean period because of exam season but we are seeing a demand slowdown for the upcoming summer holiday season especially for international travel. The situation remains dynamic making it hard to quantify the actual impact on our business and industry at large," he said.

According to the Union Health Ministry's latest update, with fresh cases reported from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Ladakh, the number of people who are COVID-19 positive has gone up to 73.