Almost a week after the Nilgiris was reopened to tourism, businesses dependent on the tourism and hospitality sector continue to struggle due to lack of visitors to the district.
The Nilgiris was reopened to tourists on September 9 after being closed for almost six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotels, restaurants and other businesses had been hoping that the relaxation of rules would translate to more business.
According to official figures from the horticulture department, a total of only 2,607 tourists have visited the seven parks and gardens till Monday. “Roughly, this translates to around 450 people visiting the parks each day,” said an official from the department.
The Government Botanical Garden, which would expect to host more than 20,000 visitors each weekend during other “normal” years, has seen only 1,076 visitors since it was opened on Wednesday, averaging around 174 visitors each day.
“Many of these visitors are day-trippers, who come to the Nilgiris in the morning and leave by evening, while a percentage of the visitors will be locals, meaning the number of actual tourists are even lower than what the numbers suggest,” said N.Chandrashekar, honorary secretary of the Nilgiris Hotels and Restaurants Association.
Mr. Chandrashekar said that part of the problem lies with a cap on the number of tourist passes being approved by the district administration. “Very few passes are being approved and this is unfair to the businesses in the Nilgiris as people are allowed to travel freely across the State,” he said, calling on the system to be scrapped, or for the district administration to significant increase the cap on the number of tourists being allowed into the district.
A number of restaurants and hotels have had to close down again due to low occupancy rates. “We were hopeful that the tourist pass system would ensure that we make enough money to at least cover operational costs, but due to very few tourists being allowed into the district, many hotel and restaurant owners have had to shut down their businesses again till they get sufficient demand,” said a hotel owner from Udhagamandalam who closed his hotel and restaurant business a few days after reopening.