http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-1569296,00.html
News and Comment April 16, 2005 The Times No room at India's inns Ginny McGrath and Tom Chesshyre report on a hotel shortage Booming tourism on the back of new flights to India is causing a shortage of accommodation � leaving many independent travellers struggling to find a bed for the night on backpacking trips, and reducing options for those on package holidays. Tour operators say they are concerned that the country is not keeping up with growing tourist demand. Visitor numbers to India have shot up by a million over the past two years to 3.4 million last year. This figure is expected to reach 4.5 million by 2007, boosted by increased air services to the country. This week the UK and Indian governments agreed to a doubling of direct flights between the countries by the end of next year. At the moment there are 40 weekly direct flights allowed under a bilateral agreement, but this will increase to at least 84, with further routes likely. Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and bmi have all recently announced new routes, increasing the capacity to Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Bangalore. Further services are expected to be announced soon for Hyderabad, the country's fifth- largest city, and to Goa and Kerala. A BA spokeswoman said: "This week's deal is great news for consumers. It will mean fewer transfers via the likes of Frankfurt and Dubai." But Linda Pedler of Kuoni fears that the country is desperately short of hotels: "We have already seen a boom to India in the past 12 months, which is great for us; although there are capacity problems, particularly in Delhi, which is a real bottleneck. There are new hotels in the pipeline but these aren't going to be ready for a while." Her concerns are backed by Judy Slatyer, chief executive of Lonely Planet, the guidebook publisher, whose books are popular with backpackers in India. She said: "A lot of our travellers come back from India saying that hotels were full � that India was full." Tourist authorities in India have recognised the problem. Amitabh Kany, joint secretary of India's Ministry of Tourism and Culture, said: "We are working to bring 100,000 more hotel rooms in four years and there is a huge capacity in unregistered guesthouses." Many tourist operators are also worried about whether airports will be able to cope as flights increase. BA has already announced that it will have new flights to Bangalore from October, for which flight prices have yet to be set � its Calcutta returns start at �380 � while Virgin began flights to Bombay last month from �531. And bmi is beginning flights to Bombay on May 14, starting at �391. P.R.S.Oberoi, chairman of the Oberoi Group, the luxury Indian hotel company, said: "I foresee a severe problem in the next two years at our airports because they simply cannot take the traffic." Details: Virgin (0870 5747747, www.virgin.com/atlantic), BA (0870 8509850, www.ba.com), bmi (0870 6070555, www.flybmi.com), India's Department of Tourism (www.incredibleindia.org). Kuoni (01306 744444, www.kuoni.co.uk), Oberoi (00800 12340101, www.oberoihotels.com). -- Cheers, Gabe Menezes. London, England
