Elections Cast Shadow On ‘Peak’ Tourism Season

Joy Roy Choudhury - Kolkata

It may be a good time for the politicians but for the small and medium tour operators there is very little to cheer about. With the 14th Lok Sabha Elections slated for April and May 2004, there are very few who are venturing out this summer. Due to this, the business of the tour operators and travel agents have been affected badly.

"The peak tourism season starts from the last week of April and continues till the onset of monsoon. But this year with the ensuing Lok Sabha elections there are few takers. People are not risking to venture out this summer. Coupled with this, dates of examinations in some cases too have been rescheduled for the elections, which is yet another reason that has influenced travel," said a senior office-bearer of the Association of Tourism Service Providers of Bengal.

Association of Tourism Service Providers of Bengal is the apex body of small and medium tour operators, travel agents and others related with the tourism industry in West Bengal.

He further added that, "Bengalees love travelling and they go out during this period to different 'cooler' locations in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and in places like Ooty in Karnataka and other states to beat the blazing heat. By this time of the year we used to register the bulk of the bookings for the ensuring summer, but this year the situation is different,' he said.

The socio-political scenario especially in the northern states during the period of the election campaigns, have restricted tourism movement to those regions from West Bengal. The situation is unlikely to normalise before the declaration of the election results on May 13 and the swearing-in of the new Ministry, feel industry observers. Besides, the dates of examinations for various schools, colleges and universities have been rescheduled as most of the educational institutions would be taken over by the Election Commission (EC) to be converted into polling centres. But due to the various socio-political developments, people are opting for short-breaks within the state, instead of going out for a long vacations.

Explained another leading tour operator from Kolkata, "Since people are not willing to travel down south or up north this summer, we have planned few short-duration tours within the state to cooler places in North of Bengal. This will help us to tackle the current situation and would help in cutting down our losses to an extent.