THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tourism in Kovalam is behaving like the Madathi pond found way behind the Eve’s Beach. Madathi is shrinking by the season, so is tourism in Kovalam.
What was once a 180-day destination, shrunk to 60 two seasons ago, and this season, local says, has dried up to just about 30 days.
“The kind of foreign crowd we used to witness, say some seven or eight years ago, was found only between December 15 and January 10,” said Roy Snehapalan, a former life guard.
“Now it seems as if foreigners leave our shores after their New Year revelries,” he added. G Sudhiesh Kumar who has been running Hotel Sea Face for the last 20 years along the beach confirms Roy’s observation.
“This season was the worst, and the crowds were witnessed in this one-month period between December 15 and mid-January. Now we find that the tourists are turning their back on the place,” he said.
Traditionally, the season began by the middle of October, with the arrival of jumbo charters from England, and extended up to the end of March, when the snows evaporate from the Scottish highlands.
Three major reasons have been cited for the drying up of the season: disappearance of charters, popularity of Sri Lanka and prohibitive air fares.
The arrival of the first charter from UK marked the ritual beginning of tourism season in Kovalam.
Things went bad in 2009, when the global recession hit Europe, England stopped flying charters to Thiruvananthapuram. “Ever since, hotels and resorts in the area have witnessed a fall in occupancy,” Mr Sudhiesh said.
2009 also happened to be the year Veluppillai Prabhakaran was killed and his LTTE decimated. “Once peace returned to Sri Lanka, resort owners in Kovalam must have lost their peace,” said John Manjooran who heads Emerald Pleasures. “Sri Lanka, like Kovalam, has virgin turquoise beaches, swaying coconut palms and even Ayurveda.
