Hotel chains opt out of Delhi Commonwealth Games

Fearing poor visitor turnout for the Commonwealth Games in the wake of recession, six hoteliers and bnb New Delhi establishments, which were alloted plots for construction of hotels for the mega sporting event have developed cold feet.

"These six hoteliers after getting land did not come forward to obtain necessary clearances for beginning the construction of hotels. So, we are recommending for cancellation of their plots," said a senior Delhi government official.

The alloted hotel sites facing cancellation are at Anand Vihar, Mandavali, Vivek Vihar, Mayur Vihar and Alipur Road.

DDA had auctioned 33 sites in the capital for construction of hotels keeping the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in mind.

"Now with six already out of the project we have to expedite the construction work of other proposed hotels to meet the deadline before the Games," the official said and added, "We have offered incentives to these hoteliers for completing the construction before June 2010."

Tourism Ministry is hopeful of making available about 6,000 rooms during the Games out of these new hotels.

The Games Village is being developed by the DDA to provide accommodation as well as training facilities to 8,000 athletes and officials during the Games.

Besides the Game Village, DDA is also constructing flats in Vasant Kunj which would be utilised for the sporting event.

"We expect about 5,000 rooms to be made available for visitors during the Games in Vasant Kunj. ITDC will provide necessary arrangement for the staying of visitors in these flats," the official said.

Meanwhile, global recession has adversely affected the foreign tourist arrivals (FTA) in the country.

While 5.96 lakh foreign tourists had come to India in December 2007, their number reduced to 5.22 lakh in December 2008, which is a negative growth of minus 12.5 per cent.

The FTA had also registered a negative growth of minus 2.1 per cent in November 2008.

However, Tourism Ministry is hopeful that the situation will not remain the same in 2010.

It has undertaken a series of confidence building measures to minimize the negative impact of the recent global economic meltdown.

"Visit India 2009" scheme is being launched whereby attractive incentives by way of value additions would be offered to foreign tourists visiting the country during the period from April to December this year.

The ministry is also organising a series of road shows in UK, Australia, Japan, USA, Canada and other important tourist generating overseas markets.

With this bad news, hopefully the commonweatlh games will not be cancelled.