The state’s hospitality industry is staring at a huge loss due to the novel coronavirus scare.

Sources in Jharkhand Hotels and Bar Association revealed that between February and March, the business at hotels and restaurants had nosedived 50 per cent owing to poor footfalls and occupancy levels in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak globally.

“The hotel industry in Jharkhand was already reeling under the impact of the economic slowdown in the country. We had hoped for a revival during the brisk tourism season between December and March. But all our hopes have been dashed by the novel coronavirus scare. It will take a long time for us to recover,” said Gurucharan Singh, president of Jharkhand Hotels and Bar Association and owner of a hotel along Main Road in Ranchi.

The hotelier said the occupancy levels in hotels had come down by 50 per cent since January.

“Footfalls in even popular restaurants have plummeted by nearly 50-60 per cent in the last few weeks. The occupancy rates in both big and budget hotels have also come down by nearly 50 per cent,” Singh added.

There are over 200 bars-cum-restaurants and over 700 hotels in Jharkhand. All of them are facing a similar crisis.

“The visa ban and travel restrictions have all had a telling impact on the industry. We haven’t faced this kind of a crisis in the last few decades,” Gurpal Singh, owner of Hotel Natraj in Ranchi, said.

The situation is somewhat similar in Dhanbad, which relies mostly on tourists from Bengal. However, hoteliers in the coal town are hopeful of things improving because of financial year-end meetings.

“Footfall in restaurants has dropped by nearly 50 per cent and the sale of non-vegetarian items has reduced by over 80 per cent. However, the impact on the occupancy levels in the hotels of Dhanbad, which is more of a business destination, is less severe than the other parts of Jharkhand. In Dhanbad hotels, occupancy levels came down by around 10-15 per cent in the first week of March. We are hopeful of things improving in the last week of March as people start coming for financial year-end meetings,” said Anutosh Bagchi, general manager Skylark Hotel at Bank Mor in Dhanbad.

The scene in Jamshedpur looks gloomier.

“Footfalls in restaurants have fallen nearly 50 per cent and so has the occupancy in hotels,” said Rajeev Duggal, president of Jamshedpur Hotel and Restaurant Association.

The East Singhbhum administration’s order cancelling all public mass gatherings as part of a preventive measure has also dashed the revival hopes for hotels in the steel city.

“We had a few bookings for Swadeshi Mela. But they have been cancelled after the administrative order issued yesterday (Friday) evening,” a senior official of a hotel in Bistupur.