Tourism stares at losses of Rs 500cr There are 62,000 rooms in hotels in Darjeeling hills and Sikkim, and another 8,000 rooms in the plains of north Bengal

The East Midnapore administration on Thursday decided to ban picnics in the beach towns of Digha, Mandarmani and Tajpur till at least March 31 to prevent gatherings.Picture by Jahangir Badsa

Bireswar Banerjee, 20.03.20, Siliguri : Tourism industry stakeholders in north Bengal and Sikkim fear losing over Rs 500 crore if the coronavirus crisis persists for a month.

According to them, there are 62,000 rooms in hotels in the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim, and another 8,000 rooms in the plains of north Bengal. There also are 12,000-odd homestay accommodations spread over the region.

“During this time of the year, the occupancy rate in any hotel here is 90 per cent or above. Ballpark calculations done by us suggest that every night the hospitality industry — that is hotels, resorts and other accommodations — is losing Rs 11 crore, which means over Rs 300 crore in a month,” said Samrat Sanyal, the general secretary of the Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network.

“Added to this are the losses the transport sector will suffer, that the restaurants will suffer. Taken together, the tourism sector stands to lose over Rs 500 crore,” he added.