JAIPUR: Going by the data of tourists visiting monuments in Jaipur, it seems the coronavirus outbreak has not deterred the foreign tourists visiting these crowded places. The footfall of Indian tourists, though, has taken a beating.
The number of visitors at Amber Fort and Jantar Mantar, which are generally considered as benchmarks by the tourism industry to infer a trend, show that more and more domestic tourists are skipping the monuments, while the foreign tourist visits have gone up in the past five days.
On March 2, when the Italian tourist tested positive for the virus in the first report, the foreign footfalls stood at 1,222 at Amber fort and the same for domestic tourists was at 3,841. The figures for March 6 show that visits of foreign tourists increased to 1,385, while the same for desi tourists came down to 2,427.
The arrivals at Jantar Mantar also reveal a similar trend, with the number of domestic tourists going down from 2,418 on March 2 to 1,772 on March 6, whereas the foreign tourist visits stood at 1,021 against 1,028 on March 2.
“The data could be interpreted in a couple of ways. It could be that the foreigners who had already come all the way spending so much of money did not like to miss out on visiting these monuments. But only in coming weeks, there will be clarity if the numbers sustain, even though we need to factor in the fact that the tourist season is on the way out,” said a tour operator.
But he also pointed out that the foreign tourists could have stayed indoors in their hotels if they had felt it was risky to go out. "This can also point out the fear is more among the domestic tourists than the foreigners," he added.
However, a hotelier in the city said that the trend does not augur well as the hospitality industry is driven by domestic tourism. "Domestic tourists have emerged as a biggest segment for the hotel industry. The precautionary announcements by the governments, both Centre and the state, to avoid large gatherings have certainly impacted the sentiments of the domestic travellers," said the hotelier.
Now, everybody is betting on high temperatures, which has been playing hide and seek. It is believed that the virus finds it hard to survive the Indian summer heat.
The number of visitors at Amber Fort and Jantar Mantar, which are generally considered as benchmarks by the tourism industry to infer a trend, show that more and more domestic tourists are skipping the monuments, while the foreign tourist visits have gone up in the past five days.
On March 2, when the Italian tourist tested positive for the virus in the first report, the foreign footfalls stood at 1,222 at Amber fort and the same for domestic tourists was at 3,841. The figures for March 6 show that visits of foreign tourists increased to 1,385, while the same for desi tourists came down to 2,427.
The arrivals at Jantar Mantar also reveal a similar trend, with the number of domestic tourists going down from 2,418 on March 2 to 1,772 on March 6, whereas the foreign tourist visits stood at 1,021 against 1,028 on March 2.
“The data could be interpreted in a couple of ways. It could be that the foreigners who had already come all the way spending so much of money did not like to miss out on visiting these monuments. But only in coming weeks, there will be clarity if the numbers sustain, even though we need to factor in the fact that the tourist season is on the way out,” said a tour operator.
But he also pointed out that the foreign tourists could have stayed indoors in their hotels if they had felt it was risky to go out. "This can also point out the fear is more among the domestic tourists than the foreigners," he added.
However, a hotelier in the city said that the trend does not augur well as the hospitality industry is driven by domestic tourism. "Domestic tourists have emerged as a biggest segment for the hotel industry. The precautionary announcements by the governments, both Centre and the state, to avoid large gatherings have certainly impacted the sentiments of the domestic travellers," said the hotelier.
Now, everybody is betting on high temperatures, which has been playing hide and seek. It is believed that the virus finds it hard to survive the Indian summer heat.
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