Weekend tourism takes a beating in drenched Puducherry

Puducherry: Weekend tourism may take a beating in Puducherry thanks to the heavy rain in the trail of Cyclone Ockhi that battered Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Tourists from neighbouring states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra who normally make a weekend beeline to Puducherry, cancelled their bookings at the last minute due to the heavy rain in the Union Territory for the past three days and the cyclone warning.

Usually the hotels in the city would be fully occupied during weekend but business had fallen upon bad times this weekend, say hotel owners. Rains that gave a break to the district for a few days once again lashed on Wednesday. “Though the heavy rain had affected the business in the first weeks of November, we were having advance bookings this week when almost all the rooms were to be taken.  But due to the sudden heavy rains, many of the tourists have cancelled their booking at the last minute, a hotelier said.

“Most of the tourists who have not cancelled their bookings are not aware of the climatic conditions here. Whenever they are calling we used to tell them that  Puducherry is witnessing heavy rain. Though we were expecting 90 percent occupancy this weekend, the number of last-minute cancellation is high and definitely a blow to the business”, said Amalan A, proprietor of the French Villa resort here.

The hospitality industry in Puducherry was facing huge loss for the past two years, mainly due to climate condition, demonetisation drive and the cash crunch followed, complained the hotel owners. An official of Tourism Department said that the tourists who had cancelled their trip were unlikely to turn up in the next week also unless the climate conditions change. We are expecting that the tourism sector will gain momentum from this setback, during the Christmas and New Year celebration, he added.