God's Own Quarantine

LOCKDOWNS, QUARANTINES, CANCELLED FLIGHTS, SHUTTERED HOTELS—THIS IS THE NEW NORMAL INSIDE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. TOURISM HAS TAKEN A DIRECT HIT. JOSE DOMINIC, DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE CGH EARTH GROUP OF HOTELS, SPOKE TO RADHIKA P. NAIR ABOUT THE IMPACT ON TOURISM AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

- RADHIKA P. NAIR

How is your lockdown going?

We are all confined at home. We have stopped newspapers even. But technology is of great help. We are able to do meetings online through Zoom and its almost as real as being in the same room. I wish we were going through this home isolation at our farm—it would have been more pleasant, but the internet is not as good. I am learning a lot of new technology!

You have seen many highs and lows over the years; is there any precedent for what we are facing with Covid-19?

What has happened is going to change everything. In Kerala, we have dealt with our share of troubles in recent years—Nipah and the floods of the last two years. earlier we faced the issues caused by the Mumbai attacks of 2008 and the 9/11 attacks and the Parliament attack in 2001. All these led to a severe crisis for tourism. If we go back further—1994 was the year of the Indian plague or Surat plague, when foreign travel came to a complete halt. That is the closest comparison I can make to what is happening now. We had commisioned Coconut lagoon in 1993 and a year after India had the plague. however, at that time something good did happen afterwards. until then, Indians mainly travelled to hill stations. After the plague the Gujaratis discovered the backwaters and other Indians followed. Domestic tourism really took off.

But, this time it goes beyond what we saw during the 1994 plague. I have to reach for stories that I heard of the 1918 Spanish Flu, plus all the plagues that took place in all the centuries before that. It took generations to recover. This pandemic and impact can only be compared to those events.

Kerala was ground zero in India with the first cases showing up there. What has the response and impact been like in Kerala?