Sikkim bars entry of foreigners, Darjeeling hoteliers jittery

Deep Gajmer | TNN | 5 March 2020 | Darjeeling / Kolkata : Sikkim has decided to ban entry of foreigners to insulate itself from the novel coronavirus, leading to large-scale fears among tour operators and hoteliers in Darjeeling that bookings would be cancelled. A blanket ban has been issued for permits to visit Nathu La, bordering China.
“Darjeeling and Sikkim are inter-linked tourist destinations. Overseas tourists usually spend four-and-a-half days in Sikkim and two-and-a-half days in Darjeeling. Now that they will not be able to travel to Sikkim, they are likely to cancel the Darjeeling leg of their trips and go elsewhere for week-long holidays,” said Amit Periwal, proprietor of Clubside Tours & Travel, who spent most of Thursday informing his clients in the US and Europe about the develo-pment.
The tourist season in the Hills gets underway in April.
The Sikkim home department on Thursday issued a notification, placing curbs on the issue of inner-line permit, a travel document that foreigners require to have in addition to the Indian visa to visit the Himalayan state. The restriction also applies on nationals from Bhutan.
Around 8% visitors to Darjeeling are foreigners. Americans and Europeans — British, French and Germans — in addition to Japanese and Chinese nationals, make up the bulk of travellers to Sikkim and north Bengal.
Within hours of the notification, an Australian group that was due to travel to the belt from March 28 sent a cancellation request to Pradeep Lama, proprietor of Blue Line Tours & Travel. “I fear there will be more such cancellations,” Lama said.
Around 8% visitors to Darjeeling are foreigners. Americans and Europeans, including British, French and Germans, in addition to Japanese and Chinese make up a bulk of travellers to Sikkim and north Bengal. While restrictions have been placed on entry of Chinese and Japanese travellers into India following the spread of nCoV, the Sikkim government’s decision will now impact not only hotels in Darjeeling, but also the travel trade industry in Kolkata and the rest of India. “With outbound travel business gone, we were trying to woo foreigners to India that had been relatively free of nCoV. But with cases in Kerala and then Delhi and Agra making news, some of the big tourist draws are gone. Now with Sikkim’s no-entry to foreigners, the recovery efforts by selling India is as good as over,” said Travel Agents Federation of India chairman (east) Anil Punjabi.
Raj Basu, tourism advisor to the Sikkim government, acknowledged the move would deal a blow to the sector but pointed out health safety was the priority. “Sikkim attracts adventure tourists. Many of them will anyway not travel at a time like this. Once the crisis is over, tourists should be back for trekking and other activities,” he said.