Muhammad Raafi
SRINAGAR
The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCC&I) and the travel and tour operators of Kashmir Saturday held a protest demonstration against the Online Travel Portals (OTP’s) who they claim have largely marginalized the business of tour operators including that of Kashmir by offering discounts / coupons / vouchers to customers who book Kashmir packages, particularly Hotel bookings online.
“In view of this unethical practice by various OTP’s, protests have been declared by the tourism industry across mainland India with a major show of support at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and at various state capitals / tourist destinations, Faiz Ahmad Bakhshi, secretary general KCC&I said.
“This unethical & illegal practice by these OTP’s have made tour/travel operators to suffer badly and if this trend continues, it will render them jobless leading to starvation of thousands of related people,” said Jan Muhammad, a local tour and travel operator.
He said that these OTP’s sell rooms at very low prices, however, they pay full amount to the hoteliers here which is surprising. “If a hotel in Kashmir charges Rs 2000 for a room, they (OTP’s) sell it for Rs 1000 only. However, they pay Rs 2000 to the hotelier. How is it possible?” he questioned.
Faiz said that this trend is bringing a bad name to the local tourism industry here. “When a customer calls directly to the hotel manager and enquires about the rate, he feels cheated and that is quite obvious.”
He said this trend should stop. “This is basically a big mafia spread around the world including Dubai and China. They whiten their black money by these mischievous trends.”
Later, they want to rule the travel industry and render the small operators jobless.
The Members of Kashmir Tourism Industry and KCC&I briefed the press about the issue and later held a peaceful protest at Pratap Park which continued till 12:30 pm.
