Blasts, Gurjar protests deal a big blow to Jaipur tourism

UNSTABLE STATE: Jaipur blasts are threatening to push Rajasthan from tourism to terror map.

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From a luxury destination with royal hospitality to figuring on the warning lists of travel websites — just a year after the Ajmer blasts, Jaipur serial blasts are threatening to push Rajasthan from the tourism to the terror map.

A month after the serial blasts, the verandahs of the Pink City are back to business but the tourists, especially foreign tourists are few and far between.

If the terror e-mail sent out from Sahibabad after the blasts is anything to go by, the terror attacks were aimed at turning foreign tourists away.

And now Ditte Smed and her friends are among the rare group of tourists you see on the streets of Jaipur. Unfazed by the blasts, Ditte says it the threat hasn’t worked, but tourists like her are a minority.

“We knew it was probably a one-off incident. I was a little nervous but now I have walked around and even though everything normal, it's near normal, so it's okay,” Ditte says.

The historic forts, palaces and the Hawa Mahal — Jaipur's tourist attractions have rarely ever been left alone like. To make matters worse, just as they city was getting back on its feet after the blasts, the Gurjar protests dealt it yet another blow.

For some of the tourists who found themselves caught in the crossfire, the dream holiday in the royal state suddenly started appearing more like a nightmare.

If travel warnings from US and some European nations were bad news, the warning against 'ethnic clashes' with the Gurjar spelled even more trouble for one the state’s biggest revenue generators — tourism.

“There's been much publicity of the 2010 games in Delhi, which is why lots of hotels have come up in Jaipur. Millions of rupees have been invested. If it goes on like this then 2009 and 2010 bookings will be a question mark,” Kuldeep Singh, a Jaipur tour operator says.

Some hotels have had hundred percent cancellations. Bookings for the latter part of 2008 have already been cancelled and estimates suggest that Jaipur and other cities in Rajasthan have suffered at least a 20 per cent loss of business since last year.

And though the Commonwealth Games were looking like a window of opportunity, the tourism industry is grim with concern.