Bengaluru: In Alappuzha, a much-pinned destination on Kerala’s backwater maps, former houseboat operator Tommy Joseph is waiting for a turnaround he cannot bet on. Joseph owned eight houseboats and operated several others on lease until Covid-19 forced a shutdown. Tourism is returning to familiar form in the southern state but the revival has not been reassuring enough for him to open shop. With the market offering no certainty, Joseph would rather play safe, and watch.
The pandemic halted tourism in India in one grim sweep, leaving behind stories of livelihood losses and mass worker migrations – stories familiar for their underlying distress. The story of recovery, however, is playing out without patterns.
A big post-pandemic tourist influx in Jammu and Kashmir is mounting pressure on infrastructure and ecology, while Meghalaya is mulling curbs to keep tourism sustainable. In Rajasthan, time-honoured ethnic traditions of conservation are put to the test by unchecked tourist…