Nipah virus: Rising cancellations ring alarms bells for Kerala tourism
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The feverish activity on social media has dramatised and blown out of proportion what is essentially a highly localised outbreak of the Nipah virus. For the tourism industry, the damage has already been done. Cancellations have, however, not reached alarming proportions, only a handful has been reported across the state. Most of the cancellations are in Wayanad, the closest tourism destination from the epicentre of the outbreak, Perambra in Kozhikode. But what has worried the tourism industry is the frequent calls they receive, 10-20 a day during the last three days, from prospective clients and also from travelers who had already made their bookings asking whether it was advisable to travel to the state.
The fear is real, and threatening to be all-consuming. A visit by the Belgian Trade Commissioner in India to Kochi, scheduled for May 25, has been called off. “There is unnecessary panic all around. It is understandable given the scary messages that are being spread through the social media,” said Sanjeev of Voyages Kerala. “We try to calm them down and pass on the official information we had secured and also some media reports that state that the outbreak has been largely contained,” he added. Mr Sanjeev feels that the state’s competitors might use the chance to go on a scaremongering overdrive.
Wayanad Tourism Organisation president K.R. Vancheeswaran said that such doomsday hawkers were doing their job subtly. “One media report that had a wild run on social media was the one that had a headline that went: ‘Central team rushes to Kerala’. The verb rush is problematic,” Mr Vanchees-waran said. He said there were cancellations in certain properties in Wayanad. The onset of monsoon also marks the lucrative ‘Ayurveda season’ for the Wayanad tourism industry. “Look at the irony. People are coming here for their health and then Nipah strikes. But we try to tell them that there is no need to panic. The government has acted fast and decisively,” Mr Vancheeswaran said.
Tourists to Wayanad mostly arrive in a train and then would take a cab or a public transport to the various properties. “So we have told them that the best precaution that they could take was to wash their hands twice or thrice a day because they might have held on to the railings of a public transport,” he said. Shailesh of Mystikal Holidays is at his wits end. “There are cancellations across the board specifically because of Nipah, even those travelling to Kovalam have cancelled their trip. Travelers don’t differentiate, for them both Kozhikode and Kovalam are Kerala,” Mr Shailesh said. “We try to explain that it is a highly localised outbreak and that it has been contained. Some understand, most don’t,” he added.
