All it took was a lockdown on Sundays for room bookings in hotels to plummet. Weddings have been shifted back to people’s home towns and conferences put on hold at resorts.Families that have set wedding dates in February are worried if they would be able to invite family and friends for the event.“The restrictions are also in place and due to that we can only invite 100 persons for the wedding. Hopefully it would be eased and we can invite more people,” said the father of a groom. Hoteliers said bookings that had witnessed buoyancy in November- December came down around Pongal. “The lockdown is only on one day but we have had cancellations for other days of the week as well. Our room occupancy is around 30% now. It the same case with business class hotels in the city too,” added a hotelier.Temple towns like Chidambaram and Madurai too have been witnessing very low room occupancy. “A large section of our guests come to visit temples. But since the places of worship are not open to devotees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we are seeing very dismal bookings,” said a hotelier in Chidambaram.R. Anand, a tour operator, said clients were hesitating to make bookings this month. “Till Pongal I sent guests to the Andamans, Karnataka and to Vizag. But several destinations like the Andamans have banned visitors until further notice. Vehicle owners, drivers, hotels and agencies like ours have been hit due to this. People are not taking vaccination and masking seriously, which is the reason for the lockdown in the first place,” he said.However, travel industry sources pointed out that the Health Minister had said the Sunday lockdown was not likely to be continued. “In all likelihood, things are expected to get better by mid February. We are taking bookings for tours in April,” said a tour operator.
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