TIRUPATI: The continuing Covid-19 curbs on pilgrim influx into Tirumala has, among other things, hit the region’s tourism sector hard. During pre-Covid days, the hill town used to witness annual pilgrim footfall of around 3.5 crore and a daily turnout of close to one lakh. It has now come down to 30,000 visitors a day.
Due to restrictions on Tirumala ghat road operations, APSRTC is also staring at a revenue loss of Rs 290 crore. In 2019-20, the carrier ferried 3.07 crore passengers in 10.5 lakh trips between Tirumala and Tirupati, which fetched it a revenue of Rs 242 crore. Its earnings dropped to Rs 67.52 crore in 2020-21 as only 69 lakh devotees travelled between the two places.
Between April 2020 and September 2021, APSRTC suffered a revenue loss of Rs 290 crore as passenger numbers depleted by 3.6 crore. The overall loss could run into hundreds of crores if Tirumala-linked travel from across the state and other states in APSRTC buses is taken into account.
Same is the case with railways. An average of 70,000 passengers used to arrive and depart from Tirupati railway station daily during pre-Covid times. Now, the average passenger footfall has dropped to 30,000 a day. The average per day earnings at the railway station, which used to be around Rs 31-35 lakh, has dropped to Rs 5-7 lakh a day.
Between August 2019 to September 2020, 16.65 lakh tickets were sold at Tirupati railway station, fetching railways an income of Rs 199 crore. In August-September this year, only 1.47 lakh tickets were sold, with the income dropping to Rs 38 crore.
The passenger footfall at Tirupati airport too has come down in the last two years. Between April 2019 and March 2020, the passenger footfall at the airport was 8.34 lakh from 9,587 scheduled flights during the year. Between April 2020 and March 2021, the number of flights to Tirupati dropped to 4,440 and passenger footfall to 3.49 lakh. From April to September this year, only 2.13 lakh passengers travelled in about 2,850 flights to and from Tirupati airport.
The hospitality sector seems to be the worst affected. “There are 500-odd hotels and restaurants in Tirupati whose aggregate average monthly revenues used to be Rs 75-80 crore a month. Today, only 40% of hotels are operating due to low pilgrim footfall. The losses would be over Rs 500 crore,” said Balakrishna Reddy, president, AP state hoteliers association.
Tirupati MP M Gurumoorthy told TOI that measures are being initiated by the government and the TTD to get pilgrim footfall in Tirumala to pre-Covid levels without compromising on the safety of devotees.
