Alappuzha: After being devastated back to back in the two floods that hit Kerala, Alappuzha, said to be the ‘Venice of the East’, had geared up to welcome tourists this holiday season. Dampening all the spirits, COVID pandemic came in like a bolt from the blue.
Owing to the COVID times, the tourism sector in Alappuzha has stooped into a deeper crisis. The state of small scale resorts and homestays, which can sustain only with tourists’ inflow, is pathetic. The owners of such facilities seek the Government’s help to sustain their livelihood.
Domestic and foreign tourists throng these places usually in summer. This time, instead of tourists, the novel coronavirus disease has come as an unwelcome guest, leaving the whole tourism sector in chaos.
Currently, there are no positive COVID-19 cases in the district. However, with the country being under the third phase of nationwide lockdown and the tourists deciding to stay away from air travels, the business has come down.
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The houses built to accommodate tourists, with the help of bank loans, were all damaged in the floods. For restoring the damaged houses, the owners had to sell all that they had and raise money, hoping for good business this year. The applications submitted seeking Government’s aid remain entangled in the red tapes. Amidst all these, comes COVID, completely devastating the life and livelihood of the people here.
Many of the home-stay owners had quit their jobs to start homestay venture meant for tourists.
In the first phase, government financial aid was given only for the houses damaged in the floods. Though it was planned to give aid to the houses registered as homestays, later it was dropped by the Government.
Even as they have no means of income, these home-stay owners in Alappuzha are only happy to make their spaces available for facilitating quarantine for the expatriates returning home amid COVID crisis. They are willing to do any help for the State to fight this contagion and their only hope is that the government would help them in turn to tide over the crisis they are in.
