Jaipur: Booming tourism industry in the desert state of Rajasthan has been hit by the ongoing Gujjar agitation in the state with tourists rescheduling their trip during the weekends.
Many tourists, who had booked rooms in the state to celebrate New Year have withdrew their plans to avoid any inconvenience and decided to welcome the New Year somewhere else.
However, cancellations of bookings, as of now, is low but tour operators and hoteliers anticipate that the figure will shot up in a day or two if the agitation intensifies.
"We are regularly getting phone calls and queries from tourists coming from different states regarding the current situation due to the ongoing gujjar stir," Sunil Gupta, Vice President of Hotel and Restaurants Association of Rajasthan.
"Few visitors have dropped their plan to come to Rajasthan and we expect that the number of cancellation of bookings could go high if the agitation intensifies because tourists want peace, safety and security," he said.
"We were expecting a very good business this year because the industry is now recovering from the 2008 slowdown impact. Room bookings this year is more than the last year and most of the rooms at all the places including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmer have already been booked," he said.
A city-based tour operator Sanjay Kaushik said that agitations and stirs would have a bad impact on the tourism industry because the state is regarded as a peaceful state with low crime rate.
"The agitation will have long lasting impact on the tourim industry of Rajasthan. Tourists prefer peaceful destinations and we (the state) is preferred among others but for the last two-three years, the Gujjar agitation has affected our industry and the government must solve the issue in the interests of all," he said.
"If highways and roads are blocked in the state, tourism will be completely ruined because most of the tourists travel by road within the state and many of the groups arrive here by road from Delhi and Agra.
"Since yesterday, tourists from various states are enquiring about the situation because they have safety concerns and would cancel if situation does not improve," Nikhil Pandit, former General Secretary of Rajasthan Association of Tour Operators, said.
Tourism season in Rajasthan begins in October and continues till April during which large number of both domestic and foreign visitors throng various destinations in the state.
Gujjars have been agitating for the last four days in support of their demands, including quota in jobs.
They have blocked Delhi-Mumbai rail route in Bharatpur due to which the railways authorities have diverted several trains.
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