Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Hospitality industry hits a trough

VISAKHAPATNAM: What used to be a boom time for the hospitality industry in the city seems to have become a gloom time this year, if the drastic reduction in the occupancy ratio of most of the hotels including start hotels in the city is any indication.

Depending on the status of hotel, the reduction ranged from 10 to more than 30 per cent. For example, the occupancy ratio in AP Tourim’s Haritha Beach Resorts where the tariff ranged from Rs.1575 to Rs.2625 has come down from 90 per cent to about 60 per cent. According to sources, most of the clientele (that is 70 to 80 per cent) to this resort are Bengali tourists from Kolkata and others parts of West Bengal. The number used to be about 50 per day. This has come down because the tourist season is over. However, the hotel authorities are confident that it would peak within a week .

According to Dadi Satyanarayana, corporator and proprietor of Mayura Inn near KGH, the occupancy ratio had come down by 35 to 40 per cent. Same is the case with most of the hotels, he said. The impact, according to him, is not confined to hotel industry. Enquiries with some star hotels revealed that the occupancy reduction is about ten per cent. Economy hotels however were not affected.

The reasons are many. According to one hotel manager, IT professionals used to have week-end tours to this ‘city of destiny’ and stay in star hotels. But this is no more the case, thanks to the difficult days through which this industry is passing through. Young IT professionals used to spend lavishly without bothering about future. But now these professionals are not certain of their continued income. They had cut down spending and started saving for the rainy day, said another manager of a hotel.

Traders and businessmen from Chennai and Coimbatore, dealing in steel and other allied products, are regular clientele for many a hotel. But since the demand for steel products had come down, this channel of visitors had also dried up.

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