After the fall of Sheikh Hasina, 70 percent of Kolkata’s hotels are empty
Kolkata’s New Market, Marquis Street was thronged with people from Bangladesh even a few months ago. But Kolkata has been almost devoid of Bangladeshi tourists since last July due to the unrest surrounding the quota reform movement and the aftermath of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing the country and taking refuge in India. BBC news.
The Marquis Street area is very familiar to many Bangladeshi people. This area of central Kolkata has many hotel restaurants, which mainly depend on Bangladeshi tourists for their business.
Also, almost all types of services for Bangladeshi tourists including money exchange, bus counter are available in that area.
If you go to that area, you will not think that it is a road of any other city outside of Dhaka.
However, since the quota reform movement started in Bangladesh in July, the arrival of Bangladeshis in India has decreased. And since August it has kind of stopped.
Manotosh Sarkar, the leader of Marquis Street Hotel Owners’ Association, said that now only people can come with medical visas, or those who have already obtained visas are coming.
He also said that even a few months ago our hotels had 60 to 80 percent occupancy rate. Now it has come down to only 30 percent.
Room occupancy rate is a hotel business term that measures the percentage of a hotel’s total number of rooms occupied by people.
That is, if there are 100 rooms in the hotels, now tourists are staying in only 30 rooms.
Sarkar said, Marquis Street is not only a hotel, but there are many other service providers for Bangladeshi tourists. Their main buyers are the tourists of the country. They are coming in such small numbers now that all traders are taking a beating. Buses are coming with Bangladeshi tourists, but even there it is seen that 30 percent seats are being filled, the rest are empty.
It is uncertain how long this situation will last. Therefore, the hoteliers of Marquis Street are starting to think about whether they can attract customers from other areas.
