Hotel industry suffers Rs 13.25 crore loss: ATDC Chairman Jayanta Malla Baruah

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Tourism sector of the State has suffered a huge loss due to the protests against the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)-2019. Booking cancellation loss of hotels in the Gateway to the NE — Guwahati — since December 11 to 25, during the peak time of the CAA protests, amounted to Rs 13.25 crore.

Revealing this before the media, the Chairman of Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) Jayanta Malla Baruah stated, “This is despite the fact that the government invested significantly to attract tourists from across the globe. Assam Tourism has, in the past few years, launched a massive publicity and promotion campaign under the name and tag of ‘Awesome Assam.”

To cover up this massive loss, the State Tourism is going to focus on attracting domestic tourists, he stated, adding that “road shows will be conducted for this purpose in four places, namely Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, and Hyderabad.”

The ATDC has also tied up with Google in digital advertising to reach across the globe. In this campiagn, the ATDC will target tourists from the USA, UK, Australia, and countries closer to India like the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, and Thailand. Dwelling on ground realities of the Tourism sector, the ATDC chairman said, “Altogether 500 families earn their livelihood by conducting jeep safaris across the State. Besides, more than 500 registered and unregistered tourist guides depend on tourists. Approximately 20,000 people are employed in the Accommodation sector. All of these are now forced to face extreme financial woes due to the slump in the advent of tourists into Assam following the protests against the CAA.”

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