Demonetisation has mixed impact on leisure industry to foreign countries

Kolkata: Demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes by the Centre has had a mixed impact on leisure travel to foreign countries. While some of the travel organisers say they were feeling the pinch owing to demonetisation, there are some who feel it will not have much impact on the number of tourists travelling abroad. “The move has definitely had an impact in the last couple of weeks. We are feeling the pinch,” said Claudio Zemp, director- India, Switzerland Tourism. “We hope that in the long run the situation will ease out and things will be back to normal,” he told PTI here. [caption id=“attachment_3138782” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] He, however, said that it was too early to measure the quantum of effect of demonetisation on tourist footfall to Switzerland. One of the most favoured destinations for first time travellers to Europe, honeymooners and those looking for adventure sports like skiing and sledding among others, Switzerland is aggressively promoting winter tourism as also summer tourism for 2017 to ensure that the number of tourist inflow from India does not fall. “Although Indians love to go on a vacation during the summers, we do hope for a change after this campaign,” Ritu Sharma, deputy director of Switzerland Tourism India, said on the sidelines of a road show promoting winter tourism. The German National Tourist Office, India (GNTO), is, however, upbeat about the prospects of tourist flow from India for 2017, expecting a three to five percent rise. “We do not feel there will be much of a difference,” said Romit Theophilus, Director Sales & Marketing of GNTO. “Germany is an affordable destination among European countries with regard to hotels, shopping, etc,” Theophilus said. “Germany has recorded over 5,00,432 overnights from India for the period of January-August 2016, a growth of 4.4 percent over the same period last year,” he said, adding that he hoped the figure to cross six lakh overnights by the end of 2016. “We expect that in 2017, the figure will be around 6.5 lakh overnights,” Theophilus said. “Most of the transactions are made in cheques or bank transfers, so there is no likelihood of any major problem for tourists visiting Germany,” he added. “While demonetisation has not affected corporate travel in the outbound sector, it has definitely dealt a blow to individual travellers or families and honeymooners or small time businessmen to foreign destinations,” Anil Panjabi, chairman of Travel Agents Federation of India’s Eastern India chapter, said. “Many of those who had earlier planned a lavish holiday have curtailed their plans so as to meet their budget,” Panjabi said. “There is likely to be cancellations as people would postpone their planned holidays as priorities have changed, given the situation post-demonetisation,” he said.