Frantic investors put up projects for sale

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Offering the most definite sign of Kerala’s fading tourism potential after the desertion of European charters three years ago, a large number of investors who had set up tourism ventures in the State’s famed tourist destination in the past four years are frantically trying to sell-off their half-completed or fully-functional properties.“I have at least two calls daily from entrepreneurs seeking assistance to sell their properties. Except from Munnar and Wayanad, I have calls from those who have invested in all the major destinations. It feels as though they are jumping out from a house on fire,’’ president of the Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry E M Najeeb said. This panic, according to Najeeb, has been caused mainly by three factors: Investment plans based on unsound advice, huge cost of construction and undue delay in the implementation of projects which kicks up interest rates.But all the three factors were made infinitely more pronounced by the sudden disappearance over the Kerala skies of seasonal jumbo aircraft that flew in from Europe."Three years ago, right at the peak of global recession, big charter planes stopped coming. Ever since, business has been dull. When the charters used to fly in, there was guaranteed business. There was 100 per cent occupancy for almost all. Now the charters have stopped coming but new hotels keep coming up,’’ said hotel owner Murugan of South Kerala Hoteliers Forum. To make matters worse, room occupancy during the just concluded tourism season was alarmingly low even in elite properties situated in marquee destinations such as Kovalam and Kumarakom. "This has never happened before 2008. People like us plod on because we have been in the business for nearly two decades. For the new entrants, things are getting increasingly difficult,’’ said Sudheesh, secretary of Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association.Along with Europeans, high-end domestic tourists, too, have given Kerala the cold-shoulder. ‘’Air fares have become so prohibitive that discerning tourists will rather fly to foreign destinations such as Sri Lanka and Singapore than Thiruvananthapuram. So the domestic tourists who now frequent the state are the ones who reach here by train and who are unwilling to pay more than Rs 1,500 a day for a room,’’ Sudheesh said.