travel industry is increasingly biased against the child-free holidaymaker

A number of exclusive hotels in the Maldives recently announced that they had decided to open their doors to children. Good news for parents, not such good news for anyone who’d rather not have children careering around the swimming pool.

The fact is that the travel industry is increasingly biased against the child-free holidaymaker. The big summer-sun tour operators admit that families are better for business: they are far less likely to book at the last minute and are usually forced to buy holidays in the expensive peak-season periods.

On the other hand, the travel operators don’t want to miss out on the adult market, so they pay lip service to couples and singles by selecting top-end hotels with limited family appeal and sell them as “exclusively adult”. But there’s rarely any guarantee they actually will be child-free – unless a particular hotel is sold only by a single tour operator, the hotelier is free to contract out some rooms to another operator on a different basis – and, therefore, may well be taking bookings from families. Another problem is that at smaller, boutique-style hotels, the policy on children is determined by the owner or manager. The risk then is that a property may be sold as a child-free hotel, only to have the owner opening the pool up to families at the weekend.

Then again, a hotel that really is child-free runs the risk of being a honeymoon enclave – this is particularly true of some all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. Also, hotels that don’t accept bookings from guests under 18 years, tend to be four- or five-star and therefore expensive. Get More details from: Telegraph.co.uk

Global meltdown affects foreign tourist arrivals in India

Vijay Thakur, president of the Indian Association for Tour Operators, said: “There has been a deep impact on the industry. We have registered as many as 20 percent cancellations since the attacks - especially in that western region of the country.”

“Tourism was already facing the consequences of the economic meltdown - again 15-20 percent slowdown. With this (the terror attack), it’s worse,” he added.

Thakur said while the number of bookings has come down, industry associations are trying to reassure those who have already booked and potential clients about their safety.

Another ministry official said: “The economic meltdown had already impacted the tourist influx and in the light of the recent terror attacks there is certainly a fear that there would be a decrease in foreign tourist arrivals.”

He said the picture would be clear next month when the figures would be compiled.

However, there is one positive factor. Many countries that advised their citizens against visiting India in the wake of several bomb blasts and terror attacks earlier this year have not pressed the panic button after Nov 26.

This could be due to repeated requests by Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, underlining that India is a large country and one incident doesn’t make the entire country unsafe for travellers.

The senior ministry official said some countries had even “modified” their travel advisories.

“The tourism secretary and the missions abroad have been stressing this fact. It has paid off. We can take some credit for their modifying their advisories,” the official said, not wishing to be named.

For example, the US embassy Tuesday replaced its earlier advisory of Nov 29 and advised “US citizens travelling to or already in India to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness”.

Australia and Britain have also told their citizens to “exercise caution”.

Travellers from the US, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands comprise a majority of overseas visitors to India.

“We hope the year-end celebrations would see a rise in their number,” the official said.

Read More from: Theindian News