Swine flu has impacted air travel to and from Pune by 40 per cent. Around 15 per cent of hotel bookings have also been cancelled.
However, the travel and hospitality sector feels the impact is still limited; only, if the flu scare isn’t brought under control, all this could get worse.
“Flight bookings on the Pune route have fallen 40 per cent. Otherwise, no other route has seen any major decline in the traffic or cancellations,” said Subhash Goel of STIC Travel Group.
“Flights in the Pune sector have been badly affected. The effect in the Chennai sector is very little and Mumbai is not affected. Cancellations of bookings in hotel have been 10-15 per cent,” said Travel Agents Association of India’s president, Rajinder Rai.
A section notes that it has only been a week since India has seen a surge in the number of cases. Also, people have got their tickets booked for the Independence Day weekend and it is unlikely that this would be cancelled.
After this weekend holiday is over, if bookings do not pick up for the festive season, it would be a matter of serious concern.
“As of now, we have not seen any decline in travel or cancellations. It would be very premature to come to any conclusion on the swine flu affect. If the flu continues, it will be visible in 10 days from now,” said Ashish Kishore from yatra.com.
