Hotel crunch may halt dream run of tourism

NEW DELHI: There is a twist in the tale here. Although in-bound tourism figures notched up an impressive 15.1% growth in first six months of 2007 at 22.4 million international passengers — it seems that the advantage may soon fritter away — given the lack of star accommodation facilities in the country. In fact more than 30-35% airlines cancellation have been reported in the last six months, according to industry estimates, because no rooms are available in big cities across the country.With extremely slow growth in building accommodation capacity, less than one lakh rooms in the star category are available in India currently.Experts say the lack of hotel rooms facilities may hit future tourism potential in the country.