Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Oct 10: It has been nearly 75 days since the hotels in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts reopened after remaining closed due to lockdown regulations. However, the hotels have been reporting complete slide in business. Once unlock is applied completely, the industry might show signs of picking up the lost business.
About 25 percent of hotels in the twin districts have not reopened because of various problems. Among them, there are hotels in the city which were having good business. Major problems afflicting these hotels are north-Karnataka based workers who have not returned, and some locals who used to work for hotels, having also stayed away. Labour shortage has been a major cause for these hotels to remain closed.
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Many hotels have been working with half the workforce. After the entry into temples was allowed, there has been some improvement in the number of customers visiting these hotels. M Vittal Pai, owner of Diana Hotel Udupi, feels that the industry might show further improvement if schools, colleges and cinema halls are opened.
Udupi District Hotel Owners Association general secretary, Nagesh Bhat, says that the people of late have been giving more preference to having home food. He says that employees of different banks and offices who used to have their lunch in hotels have rarely been visiting hotels now. Bhat says that currently hotels are having about 50 percent of the business and that they expect brighter days ahead.
Bars
The bars which used to be full of people till late night in the past, wear a deserted look by 9 pm now. Even on weekends there is no encouraging improvement in the business.
Naveen, a bar owner from Mangaluru, said that in the past, his daily business hovered around Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 during the weekends. However, when only the parcels were allowed, the daily business was around Rs 10,000 that has gone up to 15,000 to Rs 20,000 now. If the expenses are deducted, nothing remains for the owner, he rues.
Shankar, manager of a bar at Kavoor, Mangaluru, reveals that the number of customers had gone down by 50 percent and no one comes after 8 or 9 pm now. He says that because of sluggish business, they have reduced the staff strength, and the number of people taking home liquor and food parcels has also been reduced.
Many attribute this phenomenon of reduced customers to employment in respect of people who used to work for private concerns. Moreover, many who are working have faced wage cut. Migrant workers from north India and north Karnataka have not come back. As money circulation has come down, visitors to the hotels and bars have come down. People who used to have liquor in bars now buy from wholesale wine shops and have it in their homes or some other places, they explain.
President of Dakshina Kannada Hotel Owners Association, Kudpi Jagadish Shenoy, says that once they start operating, hotels have to meet expenses like electricity, water, gas, rent on building, salary of workers etc. If the business is not enough to support expenses, they have to face loss. Therefore, he reasons, some people have not opened their hotels.
Udupi District Hotel Owners Association president, Tallur Shivaram Shetty, says that the hotel industry has not witnessed the expected push after the lockdown was lifted. He said that the owners find it difficult to meet the expenses. As the number of tourists has come down, even the lodges are facing losses, he revealed.