PUNE: Tourists to Kerala have decided to give the state a miss after the flood’s fury.Cancellations in train and plane bookings to several cities, especially to Kochi and Kumarakom , in the past few days have been heavy. They ranged from 40% to 100% for leisure and corporate travellers, including those visiting for Onam till September, tour operators told TOI.Nikhil Thakurdas, owner of Odyssey Tours and Travels, told TOI that of the 10-15 forward bookings for Kerala in September, five to six families cancelled their plans.“September is the off season and good for travel. Hotel room rates are 40% lower than winter rates. But the floods led to cancellations,” he said.Those who have not cancelled will now go to north Kerala which was unaffected. “These travellers would disembark in Calicut and go to Wayanad and Bekal. Though Kochi, Alleppey and Kumarakom are a must, these would be off the travel itinerary for now,” Thakurdas said. Forward bookings for Kerala in November, December, January and February remained unaffected.Chetan Kelkar of Seema’s Travels said they get close to 40 enquiries around this time for travel during the Diwali period. “The lone enquiry was focused on if the situation will normalize by Diwali and Christmas. We could not confirm that,” Kelkar said.Santosh Gupta of Shree Vinayak Holidays said four clients going to Kerala on November 11 cancelled their plans. An enquiry from 32 passengers did not bring a booking, he added.Sripad Vaidya, co-founder of ConfirmTkt, said, “Of the 9,520 tickets booked with the company for travel from Pune to Kerala between August 12 and 31, around 1,120 have been cancelled due to the floods.”

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