No holiday cheer as bookings fall by 20% in Gujarat

The travel industry is not immune to the economic slowdown faced by other sectors in the state. With Diwali vacations hovering at the end of the month, tour operators and travel agents are complaining that compared to the holiday season of 2018, bookings have dropped by 20% to 30% this year. With airfares refusing to budge, they say that the possibility of revellers flying to long-distance destinations is extremely limited. This leaves room for trips to destinations within the state or in neighbouring states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or Maharashtra.

Many operators are alarmed as they felt the recent GST cut on room tarriffs would have attracted customers. "Bookings have dropped by 20-30 per cent compared to last year," said Anuj Pathak, president of Tour Operators and Travel Agents Association of Gujarat (TAG). The downturn is not only in the form of bookings made through brick-and-mortar travel and tour agents, even a cursory search on the Internet shows that hotels have plenty of rooms vacant. "One could argue that there are more travel agents now or bookings are made online, but if you check on the Internet, you find that tickets and rooms are still available," says Pathak.

Manish Sharma, founder and director of Axar Travels, said that while 80 per cent of air tickets are booked, about 20 per cent are still available. "People did not book ticketsw over the past two weeks because of shraddh," said Sharma, "Now that Navratri is here, we expect more bookings."

Bhavin Shah, director of World Travels, said that until a few year ago, advance booking was still predominant. These days, the trend has shifted to a mix of advance and spot bookings. "People are now making last-minute decisions based on availability of holidays," said Shah. "But bookings are still open for popular destinations like Goa and Kerala." Shah also informed that unlike the trend five years ago, hotels and airlines have not hiked fares in light of the festive season.

Sanjeev Chhajar, partner at CK Travels, said that while there are complaints about slowdown, it is not as dire as it has been projected. However, he admitted that tourists are now rationalizing budgets by reducing the number of days they take off. "People also prefer to travel by their own vehicles to closer destinations," Chhajar pointed out, "People travel with friends and family to nearby places such as Udaipur, Ujjain, Shirdi, Lonavla, using their own means of transport."

On September 20, the GST Council tweaked taxes on several products and services, including hospitality. The GST rate for room tariffs of Rs 7,500 and above was reduced to 18% from 28%, while those between Rs 1,000 and Rs 7,500 would have to pay 12%. Hotels with tariffs of less than Rs 1,000 do not attract tax as per an earlier decision. Earlier, the slab of Rs 2,500-7,500 attracted 18% tax.

Diwali is second most important tourist season, after summer vacation, for those living in Gujarat. With fewer days available to them, tourists mostly flock to destinations such as Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Rajasthan is an evergreen and closeby destination, and restrictions have place Jammu and Kashmir out of bounds of tour operators. Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok are among the international destinations preferred during the festive holiday season.