KARACHI, June 14: While the hotel industry business in Pakistan was seriously affected in the aftermath of the Sept 11 tragedy, the two recent car bomb explosions near five-star hotels is most likely to put the very survival of the industry at stake.
Apprehending the closure of some of the major hotels in the country, sources in the tourism and hotel industry said that the hotels, already facing serious recession due to frequent terrorist acts across the country, would receive a severe blow to their economy after Friday’s attack on the US Consulate in the city that left at least 12 persons dead and many others injured.
A spokeswoman for one of the affected hotels told Dawn that there was a drop of occupancy in the hotel immediately after the suicide car bombing incident on May 8, which claimed the lives of 11 Frenchmen and three locals. She said that the occupancy rate had declined up to 20 per cent after the terrorist act.
She said that good occupancy was being expected due to the ongoing summer vacations as occupancy rate shot up to 60 per cent during the last season. “There had already been a drop in occupancy following the Sept 11 attacks, as several countries and multinational companies had advised people against travelling to Pakistan,” she added.
A source at another five-star hotel, however, said that there was no impact on business following the May 8 bombing at Club Road which houses two major hotels. But, he said, there were lesser corporate activities going on in the hotel after the incident.
Meanwhile, sources at Marriott Hotel told Dawn that there was no major decline in occupancy after Friday’s blast, though a few occupants did checkout due to fear and panic. They said that they had shifted some corporate groups to another hotel at Club Road.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Hotel Association said that the hotels and tourism industry had already suffered greatly after the Sept 11 incident, and before it could recover from the shock, Friday’s car bombing and the May 8 terrorist attack on Frenchmen had further crippled it.
