Row keeps tourists away from Pondicherry

Puducherry: Puducherry tourism sector faces huge loss as visitors from the neighbouring state of Karnataka continue to cancel their trip following the Cauvery water dispute and untoward incidents associated with it.

This former French colony, which is considered a favourite weekend destination of people from south Indian states especially for those working the IT sector, has not had any visitors from Bangalore for the last few days.

Puducherry, which largely depends upon revenue from tourism sector, faces an average loss of Rs 2.5 lakh per day. “Nearly 5,000-7,000 people from Karnataka, especially from Bangalore visit Puducherry during the weekend contributing to 40 per cent of total number of tourists. But for the past few days the number has been decreased considerably. We are facing a loss of Rs 2.5 lakh a day” said R. Mounnisamy, director, Puducherry tourism.

“Following the bandh on Friday most of the visitors cancelled their trip. This weekend most important tourists locations in Puducherry would be deserted,” Mounnisamy told DC.

Hotels in Puducherry also shared the same experience of financial loss as most visitors from Bangalore cancelled their bookings. “Normally, hotels are almost fully occupied during the weekends, but this week many of the tourists have cancelled their bookings. Online booking is still on but the response is not satisfactory,” said Mr Prabhu, owner of Annamalai hotel here.

More visitors are expected next week, he said. Two-wheeler rentals and small scale vendors are also experiencing dull business this week. Tourists chose to cancel their holiday plans as they want to play safe.

“The violence that took place during the last few days have frightened people very much, my friends in Bangalore says,” said a tourist from Chennai. Puducherry tourism sector expect visitors to stream back into the garden city helping it to bounce back to normalcy.