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India’s tourism minister, Ambika Soni, has said that global economic conditions have significantly hurt the country’s tourism sector, in comments made the day after the tourist board revised its growth rate for this year down to five per cent, from the earlier-projected 15 per cent.

The attacks on Mumbai are making the five per cent growth figure potentially unachievable, as industry experts suggest that India’s high season for tourism could have been undermined just as it was getting underway.

Vijay Thakur, who is president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), said: “We were worried about the economic slowdown and its impact on the tourism industry but this is a direct attack on our industry as it has targeted hotels and foreigners.”

He added: “This is the peak period for the tourism sector and we were hoping business would pick up in a month. But now we don’t think that might happen. It is too early to say how big an impact it will have but it definitely looks like the sector will be hit badly.”

According to the tourism executive, the attacks in Mumbai were the first time in India that foreigners and hotels have been targeted. He suggested that this will dampen the enthusiasm of inbound tourists for some time.

Kingfisher Airlines’ chairman and chief executive, Vijay Mallya, stressed that the attacks were a catastrophe and that: “We are reviewing our flight schedules in and out of Mumbai.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

(ASAP)

"Flights into and out of the Thai capital’s international airport, Suvarnabhumi, are gradually resuming after anti-government demonstrators ended their week-long siege of the airport on Wednesday morning. Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists had been left stranded, waiting to go home.

The prospect of a return to chaos looms, however, as the political party forced from office by the country’s courts prepared to regroup in order to maintain its hold on power.

On Wednesday evening, a passenger jet departed for Sydney, making it the first international flight to depart from Suvarnabhumi airport since the seizure of the airport by the anti-government demonstrators on 25 November.

The chairman of the board of Airports of Thailand (AoT), Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, noted that airport operations would return to normal levels within a few days.

On Tuesday, the airport saw the resumption of cargo, emergency and military flights, said spokeswoman Monrudee Kettuphan.

After the Thai Constitutional Court dissolved the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat’s party, and prohibited the prime minister from holding political office for five years, the demonstrators ended all anti-government protests.

The government of the now-deposed prime minister has been accused by the protesters as being a front for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who they are hoping to see tried on corruption charges.

The court found that the ruling People Power Party committed electoral fraud in the last elections, and barred Somchai Wongsawat and more than 100 other top party officials from holding office for five years."

(ASAP)