As COVID Cases Rise, So Do Cancellation Of Hotel Bookings In Puri

Puri: Hotels in the temple town are seeing large-scale cancellation of bookings by tourists, with COVID-19 cases shooting up and the Shri Jagannath Temple closed.

According to reports, the occupancy at hotels in the city has dropped to 25 per cent in a season when they are usually packed with tourists.

This is the third year that the hotel industry in Puri has been hit by the pandemic. Although the Odisha government hasn’t imposed a lockdown, tourists are scared to come, a report quoted Raj Kishore Patra, secretary, Hotel Association of Puri, as saying.

But tour operators claimed that the hotels were harassing tourists by refusing to refund them for cancellations. Hotels, however, said they were only asking tourists to reschedule their bookings.