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Salt on wounds: Business events put off
Terrorist attacks in Mumbai have added security fears to the layers of uncertainty triggered by a local economic slowdown and recession in advanced economies, reports Lalatendu Mishra.
Terrorist attacks in Mumbai have added security fears to the layers of uncertainty triggered by a local economic slowdown and recession in advanced economies. As a result, business conference organisers have postponed or cancelled key corporate events.
Management consulting firm KPMG has postponed its international conference “India Goes Global — A world of opportunity” scheduled for Tuesday in Delhi, followed by Wednesday in Chennai and Thursday in Mumbai.
“In view of the prevailing circumstances, we feel that this may not be the opportune time to hold the event,” KPMG told delelgates in a communication, as it rescheduled the event for February next year.
Similarly, a luxury conference to be organised by a leading business daily in Udaipur on December 5 and 6 has been postponed.
“We will discuss luxury later at a more appropriate time,” the newspaper said in an advertisement.
The cancellations are expected to get accentuated by travel advisories issued by some foreign countries to their nationals, cautioning them on travel to India, industry officials said. However, those who have already booked their travel are likely to arrive as scheduled.
“The carnage in Mumbai will send out wrong signals the world over and this will hit tourism industry. UK has already issued a travel advisory asking its citizens not to travel to India’” said Mark Martin, Senior Consultant, KPMG.
“Several airlines had increased frequencies in India, including Air France and Lufthansa. But with this incident, travel will be severely affected,” he added.
“The terror strike in Mumbai has left the airline industry in a turmoil,” said Ritika Modi, Regional President, Uniglobe Travels. The global financial meltdown had already caused a sharp drop in the growth in arrivals of foreign nationals. The year-on-year growth in the number of visitor arrivals slumped to 1.8 per cent in October from 9.6 per cent in September.
(With inputs from Gaurav Choudhury in New Delhi)
