Boat tragedy affects tourism in Thekady

By C G Vasan, Thekkady, Nov 1 : Thekady, the famous wildlife tourist destination in Kerala, has not yet recovered from the worst ever boat tragedy, as the tourists are now hesitating to visit the lake city because of the non-resumption of boating services.

The tourist turnout to the wildlife sanctuary had come down drastically following the tragedy and the subsequent delay in resuming the boating services, the main tourist attraction in the hilly district of Idukki.

''Even after 30 days of the most stunning tragedy, the boating through the Periyar lake has not yet resumed, forcing the tourists to skip their tour programme to the wildlife sanctuary,'' Idukki District Tourist Information Officer Joykutty George told UNI.

Though the flow of domestic tourists, particularly from Northern and neighboring states were affected badly, the turnout of foreign tourists, however, was not affected in a big way, he added.

Pointing out that the cancellation of rooms in hotels in star category was not affected much as only five per cent cancellation were noted after the tragedy, he, however, clarified that the cancellation in medium hotels and home stays was alarming.

''It is the peak season because of Diwali, and Thekkady would have been flooded with tourists from Northern states in normal course. But the turn out is very poor in this season and the stoppage of boating has added to the vow further,'' he added.

Endorsing his views, Home Stay Association President B C Satheesh Kumar said the booking in home stays had come down by 80 per cent as there was no fresh booking for November. ''Though we had handsome bookings till October 11, after the tragedy the situation became more worse and no fresh bookings have been received,'' he said, adding, ''even some of our advance booking were also cancelled.'' Mr Sateesh said in Kumli town, where the Thekkady lake is situated, there were around 72 home stays and most of them had full bookings in the previous year during the same period.

''However, we are reeling under pressure because of non bookings and majority of our home stays are vaccant without tourists,'' he said.

The low turn out of the tourists had also affected the life of about 10,000 people, including drivers, businesmen and others, depending on tourism for their their livelihood.

During the peak season months of October, November and December there would be large number of bookings because of tour packages, particularly from students. However, after the tragedy there was a decrease of about 90 per cent in such bookings, he added.

Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association Idukki District President Sadavivan Nair stamped the views of Mr Satheesh and said the situation in the hotel industry was also not good, as 70 to 80 per cent of the room capacity in around 50 medium hotels were vacant because of the poor turn out of domestic tourists.

''Even the economic recession or A(H1N1) flu had not affected the arrival of tourists in the wild life sanctuary. However, the tragedy has crushed the back bone of the hotel industry here,'' he added. However, the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) Chairman Cheiryan Philip told UNI that the Government was taking all steps to resume the boating service at the earliest.

He said a decision in this regard would be taken after November seven and a meeting of top officials from the Forest, Irrigation and the Tourism Departments would be convened to discuss the matter.

''The KTDC can't take a decision on its own about the safety of boats and we are planning to convene a meeting of the Irrigation and Forest Department,'' he said.

Stating that they were receiving a large number of enquires from tourists about the resumption of boat services, Mr George said ''we are trying to convince them about the possibilities of eco-tourism, including boat peddling in the lake and trekking through deep forest.

Most of visitors were now preferring Munnar instead of Thekkady, he said, adding, things would be in an order in a month with the resuming of boating.

According to the previous year data, the total turn out of foreign tourists were 55,000 against 4.5 lakh domestic tourists in Thekkady.

Thekkady wildlife sanctuary is the only tourist destination in the country to have a close watch herd of wild elephants, deer, and such other wild animals during boating through the Periyar lake.

The worst ever boat tragedy in the Periyar lake that took place on September 30, 2009, took away 45 lives, including tourists from Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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