ICC World Cup date change may spark hotel cancellations
₹75,000. A month ago, when World Cup schedule was announced, most hotels, including homestays, had taken an over 100% price hike in their asking room rate. Prices of 5-stars hotels had gone up from ₹5,000-8,000 a night to ₹40,000 to ₹1 lakh for 15 October.
The India-Pakistan match will be held at Narendra Modi Stadium, which accommodates 100,000 spectators. The tickets for the match will be available for ₹3,000- ₹3 lakh. According to a senior BCCI official its decision on the date change will be announced on Wednesday.
As of 26 July, one-way flights between Delhi and Ahmedabad in economy class start at ₹24,000. Flights to Ahmedabad from Mumbai and Kolkata, are available for ₹13,000-15,000. It also doesn’t help that the match falls right in the middle of festivities in India, when airfares traditionally tend to be higher.
Airfares may rise even more if the date of the match is changed. According to Airport Authority of India, Ahmedabad is the seventh busiest airport in India, ferrying around 5.67 million people in FY22. In FY22, Ahmedabad had a supply of 3,586 hotel rooms, across Marriott, Taj, ITC Narmada, Hyatt and Lemon Tree Hotels, a report by hospitality consultancy Hotelivate said.
Chander K Baljee, chairman and managing director of the Royal Orchid Hotels said the match day, though, is unlikely to make or break fortunes. While occupancies are high around this time for many of its hotels in cities where World Cup matches are, like Dharamsala, Ahmedabad etc., one date change may not have a significant impact on a hotel’s balance sheet. Santosh Kumar, country head for the Indian sub-continent and Indonesia Booking.com said since this is a developing topic and the industry and most cricket fans are still awaiting
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