The East Midnapore district administration and police on Thursday banned the flow of visitors to the district — famed for seaside towns, including Digha — for two days starting Friday, the poll-related decision a blow to tourism during Holi.

The decision, taken amid a fresh Covid-19 surge, is reportedly being taken for security considerations given that Egra and Contai sub-divisions of the district go to polls on Saturday, the first phase. Holi falls on Sunday, and continues on Monday.

“The SDOs of Egra and Contai have issued the order stating that no outsiders can enter the area on March 26 (Friday) and 27 (Saturday),” said district magistrate Smita Pandey.

Sources said Holi, spanning Sunday and Monday this year, is traditionally a time when the district’s tourist hubs Digha, Mandarmani and Tajpur see a massive surge of tourists, in addition to heightened advance bookings. As no vehicles ply on Holi, tourists come in advance. This year, owing to Thursday afternoon’s notification, there will be a marked change.

Following the notification, hoteliers in the area were forced to turn back new guests, send existing ones home, and cancel weekend reservations en masse.

The average footfall in Digha during Holi is over a lakh, said an official.

District officials and civic volunteers made loudspeaker announcements throughout Digha on Thursday and visited hotels to make authorities on the notification.

Hoteliers’ association joint secretary Dipra Das Chakraborty said pre-Holi is usually an important time for them in the tourism business, because people usually stay in the area on Holi owing to low traffic. “This time, Digha will be empty during Holi,” he said.

“Covid was a bad deal the past year. So, we were looking forward to the Holi season, which is always a good time commercially for us. However, poll timings have affected our hope of good business during Holi,” added a hotelier.

Tourists were also disappointed.

Howrah resident Mousumi Mukherjee, who arrived in Digha on Wednesday evening in a group of 10 friends and family members, was asked to check out on Thursday evening.

“Given the long lockdown, we had all been looking forward to an enjoyable Holi weekend this time. But unfortunately that was not to be,” Mukherjee rued.

Hoteliers in Mandarmani also confirmed that they had been cancelling bookings through most of the second half of Thursday.