High room costs keep tourists at bay

Berlin: Prohibitive hotel rates and not the fear of terrorist attacks are keeping recession-hit tourists away from India, say European tour operators who were expecting Indian hotels to reduce their prices after last year's Mumbai carnage and the global economic meltdown.

"People tend to have short memory and many may have even forgotten the tragic incidents of Nov 26, 2008 in Mumbai. But hotel rates continue to deter people from visiting India, particularly when the mood in Europe is to guard against any unnecessary expense in the economic downturn," Klaus Rinner, a Vienna-based tour operator, told IANS.

Rinner, who attended the March 11-15 International Tourism Bourse (ITB) here, lamented that the "totally unrealistic and unacceptable" hotel rates will deter leisure tourism to India.

Image: A view of Taj Hotel in Mumbai.

Text: IANS

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