Puri: The coronavirus scare has started taking a toll on the hotel industry of the Holy City here.
The inflow of overseas visitors to Puri, one of the important tourist destinations in Odisha, has gone down significantly due to the fear of the deadly virus. Similarly, the flow of domestic tourists to the Pilgrim city has also been affected by the coronavirus scare.
Thousands of devotees and tourists from across the globe usually visit Puri to pay obeisance to Lord Jagannath at Srimandir and spend their holidays on the city beach. The Pilgrim City has around 1,000 hotels, lodging houses and holiday homes to host the visitors.
The hotel industry of the city had suffered a jolt when Cyclone Fani made a landfall on Odisha coast May 3, last year. The livelihoods of many locals were at stake. The hoteliers took several months to repair the cyclone-damaged infrastructure, sources said.
It is learnt that the hotels and holiday homes of the city have hosted a very few number of overseas tourists in last one month. The hoteliers believe that the coronavirus scare has been discouraging overseas tourists to visit Puri.
On the other hand, the deadly virus has caused panic among the domestic tourists to gather on the beach and visit any crowded place.
“Cyclone Fani had broken the backbone of Puri hotel industry. The hoteliers had incurred huge losses. Now, the tourist inflow has been affected by the coronavirus scare. The situation may become worse in future,” said an hotelier.
Puri Hoteliers’ Association president Rajkishore Patra confirmed that the inflow of overseas visitors has gone down due to the virus scare. “The corona scare has started affecting the flow of domestic tourists. Many organisations have cancelled their conferences in some big hotels of the city,” Patra said.
Tourism department assistant director Bijay Kumar Jena also admitted that the city has hosted only a few tourists from abroad in recent days. He, however, claimed that corona scare has not affected the inflow of domestic tourists to the city.
