Goa hotels may sweat out this winter on chartered flight drop

The off-season in this fiscal hasn't gone well for hotels operating in Goa, India's most popular beach destination for foreign and domestic travellers (corporate and leisure) alike. The business season starting October 2019 till March 2020 is unlikely to meet industry expectations either.

That's because a large number of chartered flights with European leisure travellers that Thomas Cook UK Plc was to bring into Goa will not come in this year. As a result, guestrooms booked in a large number of Indian and international hotels will now have to look for new takers. This is likely to impact growth in hotel room rates for the upcoming business season. The UK firm has no connection with Thomas Cook India.

Speaking with DNA, Aloo Gomes Pereira, chief operating officer - Charters & Goa, Trail Blazer Tours India Pvt Ltd, said, Thomas Cook UK was working with 60-odd hotels so the business impact may not be across the board for hotels in Goa. "There will be a certain number of hotel room inventory that will be available now. As a result, hotels might, out of desperation, start discounting/ bringing down their tariffs to be able to fill these rooms. I'm saying that's a possibility. Prices any way will also come down owing to goods and services tax (GST) rate cuts on hotel room tariffs thereby making hotels more affordable," he said.

The collapse of 178-year-old British tour operator is being looked at as a major setback for the hospitality and tourism industry in the beach destination.

Savio Messias, president, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) was quoted in media reports saying tourists coming via Thomas Cook UK were taking up very large number of room night (depending on their stay between seven and 21 days per charter) across hotels in the state.

Param Kannampilly, chairman and managing director, Concept Hospitality Pvt Ltd (CHPL), said business from tourists coming to Goa via charter flights is very significant. "We had indirect exposure (to Thomas Cook UK business) in only one of our hotels with very limited inventory. We are not so much dependent on foreigners because that market started cracking post the crash in European markets. We learned our lesson and decided not to put all eggs in one basket. My assessment of the charter business is that all hotels put together, it would be a single player contributing over 15% of the revenues," he said.

While the collapse of Thomas Cook UK will impact business, Goa hotel industry is hopeful of some support from tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Hoteliers said CIS a fairly big market and they have been coming to Goa since past many years.

According to Trail Blazer Tours, one of Goa's leading destination management companies, Thomas Cook UK was to bring three flights a week till November followed by seven flights a week in the period between December to March. "Keeping the number of flights in mind, we had 35,000 foreign travellers coming into Goa and now we are not certain what percentage of these leisure tourists will really come in unless the Indian government can help find an alternate way of getting these people into Goa," said Pereira.

As per local media reports, members of Small & Medium Hoteliers Association along with president Serafin Cota met Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant late evening on Thursday. It is understood that Sawant has assured hoteliers about starting London-Goa direct flight by Air India twice a week before season begins in November. The report also said that Goa's tourism secretary is already in Delhi to finalise the details of starting a direct London-Goa flight. This, if done, could prove to be a major relief to Goa's hospitality and tourism industry that's still trying to recover from slack in business so far in this fiscal.

In case the initiative doesn't materialise, the lacuna created will have to be filled with domestic leisure travellers. In fact, domestic travellers (from south, west and north India) form a large market for hoteliers in Goa and their numbers have been on a rise. Hotels are now aggressively targeting domestic tourists by offerings attractive room rates and holiday packages.

On concerns of a bloodbath kind of a situation, Pereira said, "I hope not. But if it happens then it happens. That's because a lot of domestic travellers are now booking hotel rooms online owing to attractive discounts."

That's not the only reason for a bloodbath though. Hoteliers said it is likely to happen with hotels located in the North Goa market. "While the collapse of world's oldest travel company is responsible for this situation, it has only added to the mess created by Oyo Hotels & Homes. Oyo has signed up properties left, right and centre and offering throwaway room rates. This has put a lot of pressure on room tariffs for non-Oyo hotels thereby significantly impacting business for all," said a hotelier.