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`Hijacking may have hit tourist arrivals'

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Feb. 25

THE hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft to Khandahar may have affected the tourist arrivals into the country, with the Government saying that there was a decline of almost 7,000 tourist arrivals in the last week of 1999 as compared to the previous year.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture, Mr. Ananth Kumar, told the Lok Sabha that the actual tourist arrivals at the Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta airports stood at 37,201 in the last week of December 1999 as compared to 44,178 recorded during the las t week of the previous year.

He, however, said it is difficult to anlayse the actual losses suffered by the country due to the hijacking. An IA aircraft was hijacked on December 24 last year while on a flight between Kathmandu and Delhi. The hijacking ended on December 31, when the Government released three terrorists who were being held in Indian jails.

Similarly, there was a marginal decline in tourist arrivals recorded at the four international airports during January 2000 as compared to the same period in the previous year.