COURTESY HT NOV 23

Capital’s tourism sector struggles to stay afloat

Manoj Sharma

manoj.sharma@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : Satyam Bhatnagar runs a handicrafts shop in Paharganj’s main bazar, a backpackers’ paradise that boasts of hundreds of touristy establishments such as money changers, courier companies, hotels, tour operators, and handicrafts shops. His shop, Bhatnagar says, always saw a steady stream of foreign tourists before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March. “But in the past seven months, I have not seen a single foreigner in the market.. Our sales are negligible,” he says.

The pandemic has almost wiped out tourism in Delhi. Paharganj, once a bustling, thriving market whose entire economy depends on foreign tourists, is a microcosm of the devastation caused by the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the capital’s tourism sector. This is peak travel season yet the market wears a deserted look.

Travel and tour operators complain of the loss of lakhs of jobs and see no hope of their return in the near future. This is quite a sad turn for the tourism industry in Delhi, a city which last year was ranked 11th in the list of ‘Top 100 city destinations’ in the world by Euromonitor International, a global market research agency.

“Unlike other markets, which are thriving ever since the lockdown was lifted, shop keepers here have no business at all, as 75 per cent of the business in the market depended on foreign tourists. With restrictions on tourist visas continuing, our market is the biggest victim of the pandemic,” says Subhash Vij, president of the Paharganj Market Association.

With over 800 hotels, Paharganj is also Delhi’s biggest hotel hub—and half of them are shut. “A large number of guests were foreign tourists, with as many 100 hotels completely dependent on them,” says Ajay Kumar Agarwal, president, Paharganj Hotel Mahasangh.

“I have never faced such a grim situation in the past 23 years... I do not know how l would survive,” says Anand Kumar Pandey, a government-approved tour guide.