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Camera: Athar Rather
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
It is a hot Delhi afternoon, a scorching 40 degrees, and an almost deserted Red Fort.
Today, at least a few visitors are around, clicking photos with their smartphones. With his Nikon DSLR and an album of photos, tourist photographer Vishal approaches the visitors in the hope of finding some business.
But to his disappointment all of them are locals. There’s not a single tourist.
India’s tourism has taken a serious beating in this pandemic. It is one of the worst-affected sectors. According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Hotelivate, the tourism industry is expected to suffer losses amounting to almost Rs 5 lakh crore. And to get a sense of how bad the scene is on the ground, one just has to visit the tourist monuments in Delhi.
The tourist guides and photographers are earning almost nothing. Forty-seven-year-old Rajendra Singh, a tourist guide at Red Fort from the past 8 years, says:
Few paces away, Vishal manages to get his first customer of the day after some hard convincing.
Barely 6 km away at India Gate, the entry to the innermost part is restricted. And barely any visitor is around. Rajesh Kumar, a photographer, has exactly the same narrative as his counterparts at Red Fort.
Much of their work and earnings depend on foreign tourists and their absence is worrying them.
They are now pinning their hopes on the winter and the elusive vaccine for things to change. Perhaps the lower temperatures and the lower death count will lure back tourists to ‘Incredible India’.
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