The hospitality sector was badly pounded Friday as Wednesday's attacks put an additional strain on nerves frayed by the global financial turmoil. Shares of Indian Hotels and EIH were under severe pressure after their main hotels -- Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi-Trident were hit by the attacks.
Creating a fear psychosis among visitors to the country, hoteliers are expecting large scale cancellation of bookings, especially from overseas visitors. According to reports, all the hotel association members are likely to meet the Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni next week to draw a strategy to deal with the consequences of such incidents. This, being the the busiest season for tourists (October to March), this attack was unfortunate in the middle of the peak season.
At 10:30 am, EIH was down 5.65% at Rs 87.65, Indian Hotels slumped 10.84% at Rs 43.20 and Taj GVK Hotel lost 7.03% to Rs 41.65.
Aviation stocks also took a beating with airlines cancelling/rescheduling flights on account of the terror attacks. Kingfisher Airlines fell 6.32 per cent to Rs 27.40 and Jet Airways was down 4.28 per cent.
Tourism stocks Thomas Cook lost 4.44 per cent and Tourism Finance Corporation of India declined 2.7 per cent to Rs 14.40.
