Malls and hotels mark growth post note ban

Hotels and restaurants across the city that wore a deserted look on this day, a year ago, as demonetisation had impacted the food and leisure industry, have bounced back to normalcy. Back then, the immediate impact of demonetisation had resulted in a dip of footfall across malls, multiplexes, and restaurants.

Jayen Naik, Vice-President, Ahmedabad One mall, said, “Demonetisation had hit us during its initial days, till November 15 last year where we witnessed dip in footfall as well as sales. The main reason then was that people were busy depositing money. However, then onwards, we have been growing at a decent pace. During Diwali, we witnessed a growth of 14%. On a daily basis, nearly 25,000 customers visit the mall which goes up till 50,000 on weekends.”

Speaking in length about the hotel industry, hotelier Narendra Somani, Chairman, TGB Banquets and Hotels and President of Hotels and Restaurants Association, said, “I am happy with demonetisation as it has made systems easy. The industry was impacted till December last year but it has bounced back to normalcy and hotels are doing good now. In Diwali this year, where usually, business hotels witness just 5-10 % of occupancy, TGB had 60% room occupancy.For banquets, we get bookings 6-8 months in advance but due to demonetisation, we had hardly got any bookings in December last year for April this year. But the scene is different now. Caterers across the city are packed with their bookings and it says a lot.”

For Iscon mall, it was not a major change. Nirav Vastik, manager, said, “Since we are into retail business, we have not had major impact. It was a temporary one. Our mall is undergoing redevelopment due to which only 50% of the mall is operational. Hence, we cannot blame just demonetisation for impact in footfall.”

Interestingly, owner of Atithi restaurant Chirag Patel feels that demonetisation has impacted business a lot. He says, “Demonetisation, according to me, was a sudden decision. We did not have POS machine, which took 2-3 months to arrive. We suffered a lot in the initial three months as not many had debit or credit cards. Then GST came. Traditionally, we have been increasing our prices only once a year but since we had already lost our customers,  we did not increase prices till Diwali.”