Travel agents in India are reporting a 20 - 25% dip in leisure bookings from the UK and the US for the coming holiday season. Besides the cancellations, foreign agents are holding on to January onwards bookings. Generally, travel plans and hotel bookings and accomodations are usually finalised at least six months in advance, but in the wake of the current US slowdown and financial crisis, not many queries and bookings are coming in.
What has made matters worse is that on account of a record tourist turnout last year, operators invested heavily in infrastructure upgradations, which is now all adding to their losses. The recession has seen losses in almost all sectors including hotels, restaurants and car rental companies. Crisis has also hit the Indian airlines sector, which has forced The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) to ask for a $1 billion (around Rs. 5,000 crore) interest-free loan from the governement to tide over the current crisis.
The investements even in India have also shrunk considerably in the past few weeks owing to the stock market crash, giving the Indian public nightmares. Consider this:
If you had invested Rs. 1 lakh in each of these stocks on January 8,2008, the day the sensex closed at 20,873, on 9th Oct'08, your Rs. 1 Lakh was worth....
1. Jaiprakash Associates = Rs. 19,690
2. Reliance Infrastructure = Rs. 25,170
3. DLF = Rs. 26,840
4. Sterlite Industres = Rs. 28,280
5. ICICI Bank = Rs. 34,010
(Figures source:TOI) |
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