Guest houses register low occupancy, vendors report dip in sales
SHILLONG: Comments like “tourist inflow is very low”, “business is down” slip from the lips of most small time traders and business enterprises, be it the ladies who sell corn at Umiam, Ri-Bhoi or the home-stay owners, in the wake of constant agitations over Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and Inner Line Permit (ILP).
The Shillong Times made a round of some of the tourist spots close to city to get the mood of the people. The inflow of tourists following the CAA and ILP demonstrations has gone down drastically as can be inferred from the discussions with traders and others.
A local tourist taxi driver at Lad Umroi, who ferries passengers to Bhoirymbong, said that the agitations have affected them leading to a drop in their earnings drastically during the anti-CAA protests.
Umiam view point
This reporter chanced upon a group of Gujarati tourists from Mumbai who made merry on the roadside at Umiam view point.
The tourists said that they had toured all over North East except Manipur. Asked if they faced any problem while entering Arunachal Pradesh, they said that they faced no such issues as they possessed all the necessary documents. They excitedly exclaimed, “Hum log Bangladesh border dekha, Dawki river mein boating bhi kiya (We saw the Bangladesh border and did boating on the Dawki river)”.
The tourist taxi driver from Assam who ferried the tourists around said, “CAA ke baad tourist ka aana jana bahut kam ho gaya. CAA se pehle to business theek tha (Tourist footfall has fallen after CAA, it was alright before”.
They expressed concern that before the protests in Assam erupted they would be earning a lot from the continuous bookings and they would not sit idle but things changed after the CAA protests.
A driver from Assam, Sadan Khan, said since December, the Gujarati folks’ trip was the only one as compared to the times when their schedule would be tight with continuous bookings.
A person in charge of a resort said that there is loss of revenue in terms of empty rooms and restaurants and added that advance bookings before the CAA were also cancelled.
“Rooms were usually packed but after the CAA things changed. Bookings were mostly from Kolkata, Hyderabad, Assam while there were less foreign bookings. Currently, occupancy is there but not up to the mark”, the resort staff said.
During an interaction with a lady who sells corn and other eatables, she said that her business has gone down as tourists are very less. As she was speaking to this reporter, tourists came up to her to buy the corn that she had placed on the chulha with the small ones costing Rs 10 and the bigger ones Rs 20 each.
“It has affected our livelihood so much… earlier, I was able to sell around 40 corns a day but now the maximum I can sell is about 10 a day,” she said.
Asked if she knew what was happening, she said with a smile, “I cannot say; we are not educated. We have to be contented”.
Elephant Falls
At Elephant Falls, the parking lot wore a deserted look unlike earlier times when it would be packed.
The general secretary of San Shnong Youth Welfare Organisation, Lionel Nongkhlaw, said, “There has been a drastic fall by 95 per cent in the flow of tourists after the CAA protests”.
Under the circumstances, eking out a living has become a herculean task.
Lionel said Rs 3 lakh is needed to pay the salary of the 24 staff and added that they are getting less. His words were ominous: “In such a situation, I don’t think we will be able to pay the salary of the staff.”
“With fewer tourists, how will the salary be paid”, he said adding that tourists travel through Assam, which is facing the brunt of agitation against the CAA.
A home stay owner also said business was down as most bookings were cancelled.
A manager of a guest house said that business had gone down by 15 to 20 per cent in December after the stir against CAA erupted.
A well-known government-run hotel, however, said there hasn’t been a major effect as it is off-season.
“The flow of tourists is normal, but this month is not the season. The protest did not affect much”, a source in the hotel said.
He mentioned that during the protests, the guests had stopped coming, but now their footfall has resumed.
Laitkor peak
On a visit to Laitkor peak, a shopkeeper said that in previous years, tourists would line up before the IAF entrance during Puja holidays, but last year there was a major drop in tourists’ footfall even during the Pujas.
Another lady shopkeeper was aghast and her words were marked with pain when she said, “I have four children, how will I feed them now? Earlier, before the agitations started, the sales were Rs 4000 a day. Now I am not able to get Rs 2000 a day. I do not know what will happen next”.
The lady complained that till the afternoon she had earned Rs 100 only. “So far I have earned Rs 100, but look at others, it is already 1 pm now, but they have not sold anything yet”, she said.
She also said that if ILP is implemented in the state, a large number of small time traders would be the worst-hit. “Tourists who visit Assam would come to Shillong even for a few hours and visit some of the nearest tourist spots. Now that will not happen if they have to register for ILP”, she said.
The lady, who has been selling things at Laitkor for over three decades, said that even during off season, there used to be atleast 30 vehicles packed in the area.
Member of Hynniewtrep Tourist Taxi Association, Kordor L Mawlong, said that the CAA and ILP agitations have affected the entire country. “In comparison to last year, the inflow of tourists to the state has come down”, he said.
He said most of the tourists from outside the state usually travel in Assam vehicles and the local tourist taxis get only about 10 per cent share.