PATNA
The serial blasts hit Bodhgaya where it hurts, triggering panic among travel and tour operators and hoteliers in the state and elsewhere.
The hotel association here claimed hoteliers are likely to lose over 60 per cent of their business in the upcoming peak season. Travel and tour operators from Bihar and bigger players in Delhi claimed they would suffer losses to the tune of 30 per cent this financial year. The immediate impact, hoteliers in Bodhgaya said, would be in the form of cancellation of bookings from Sri Lanka.
“Tourists from Lanka frequent Bodhgaya during July-August off-season. Though there have been no cancellations yet, principal tour operators from Lanka seem apprehensive and are making repeated enquiries from their counterparts in Bodhgaya regarding the conditions here,” said Arun Kumar Ojha, vice-president, Hotel Association, Bodhgaya. His association has 48 hotels and guesthouses registered under it and around 4,000 pilgrims from Sri Lanka come to Bodhgaya in July and August.
Full report here Telegraph
