KERALA HOUSEBOATS LAY IDLE AS TOURIST MONEY DRIES UP

NEW DELHI, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- No industry seems to be spared from the global economic pinch and even the idyllic backwaters of Kerala have gotten a bad taste of the financial crunch.

With international and domestic travellers cutting their holiday plans,
bookings for the famous Kerala houseboats to cruise the backwaters have shrunk
dramatically, with 300-odd boats now lay idle at the Alappuzha jetty.

Houseboat owners lament that the economic crisis, coupled with last
November's Mumbai terror attack, has spoilt their once booming business and now
operators are anxiously waiting when this lull would end.

"The houseboat industry is badly hit by the global recession. Our business
is down by 20 per cent to 25 per cent since the recession hit the industry and
the Mumbai terror attack," P. Nair, chief executive officer of Pulikkatil
Tourism Group told Bernama.

Alappuzha, the scenic sandy touristy location, about 100km from
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's capital, is the hub of houseboat industry with a
majority of the 450 operators operating from here.


Kerala tourist arrivals are rather dismal.

The Kerala's Houseboat Owners Association projects tourists arrivals to dip
from 525,000 in 2008 to about 250,000 this troubled year.

"We depend upon the domestic tourist arrival in the off season. This year we
don't get much inflow from the regular IT sector as meltdown has also hit them.

"Of the 450-odd boats, only 100 boats are being filled by tourists and
others remain idle in our jetties. We are incurring a loss of between Rp2,000
and Rp8,000 (Rp1 = RM0.075) per day for a boat," said association secretary Tomy
Pulikkattil.

During peak season, the industry rakes in about Rp3.36 million (RM250,000)
in revenue daily.

Thousands of casual workers in the industry also face grim days ahead
because of the dull business.

-- BERNAMA