Mounting fears of an Indo-Pak conflict have started dampening the tourism and aviation industries in India, at a time when both were on the verge of revival post the September 11 attacks on the US and the Gujarat riots. The travel warning issued by the US travel advisory has also triggered panic among travellers around the world. It is expected that the tourist inflow will decline by over 17 per cent in May and the downturn is expected to continue further unless the situation revives. Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) president Jehangir N . Katgara said: “Tourism and aviation industries were slowly picking up in the last few months and suddenly the new issue has cropped up which will definitely create a negative impact. Cancellations of both airline ticket and hotel bookings have started coming in and more cancellations are expected in the next couple of months with this grim and tense situation in this region.” According to industry estimates, the tourist arrivals in April have dropped by as much as 17 per cent to two lakh. For the period January to March 2002, India registered lower tourist arrivals at seven lakh as against eight lakh in the corresponding period previous year. Aviation industry officials, however, pointed out that “the advisory boards do have a bearing on the traffic movements between the two countries. It is, therefore, natural for airlines to witness some drop in loads though it must be stated that loads on all sectors, both inbound and outbound, are good from the airlines perspective.” Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) president Yatin Dossa said: “The warning has created a mental block and, naturally, foreign tourists will now skip their travel to India. June is a month when specially the NRIs start coming to India to spend their holidays, and we expect there will be a drop in this segment.
