Hotels had a bumper micro season in the run up to Christmas and New Year but a sharp upswing in Covid cases over the past week has brought the hospitality industry to its knees. Hotels are witnessing a spate of booking cancellations, so are international flights which would have brought in tourists ; a few stray charters from Russia and Kazakhstan don't really provide breakeven volumes for stakeholders. What is worrisome is that many passengers who board flights with Covid -ve status turn positive on arrival and end up spending their holiday in quarantine. Visitors from 'at risk' countries like UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Brazil and South Africa have to mandatorily undergo a 14-day quarantine.
Many destination weddings planned in Goa have also been cancelled, ironically most of these events are the ones which were postponed due to the two preceding waves of the pandemic. The tourism industry is expecting a 30% drop in revenue provided things don't get worse from here onwards. As yet no hard restrictions are in place but if the Omicron driven global surge in infections warrants it, the almost stillborn season will die a premature death.
