This Holiday Season, Demonetization is Expected to Affect the Entire Tourism Industry

BENGALURU: As the country witnesses a major cash crunch due to demonetization, the impact has not only affected the people, but also one of the prominent sectors––travel and tourism. Reports suggest that, even though it is the beginning of a holiday season, there has been a considerable decline in the number of tourists travelling across the country.

According to the Business Insider, even after cutting down the prices of the airlines, people are not ready to spend on a vacation. "December is an important month for travel as this is the holiday season, especially in the north, but November has taken a 20% hit even as we slip into December,” states Rajji Rai, Ex-President of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), to the ET.

The situation has worsened the state of the travel operators, making them extremely frustrated. Reji Philip, Proprietor of Cosmos Agencies, a prime travelling agency in India also believes that, if the situation doesn't improve, they might have to resort to cost cutting and layoffs.

On the other hand, the travelers willing to travel across locations are also facing with a bunch of issues which include lack of POS machines at monuments and long queues for Forex at airports due to fewer counters. The online tickets for monuments have to be scanned, but there are only fewer scanning machines installed in monuments. However, the operators believe that the situation is expected to resolve by February and March.

“Foreigners are restricted to exchanging currency up to only Rs 5000 per week. They want to spend, but Rs 5000 is way too little for them. So, they are either postponing their trips or are cancelling them. There has been at least a 25-35% decline in both outbound and inbound travel,” says Subhash Goyal, Former President of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

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