KARACHI, Sept 22: The hotel industry in the metropolitan is expected to suffer Rs5 to Rs7 million per day loss following en masse cancellation of corporate and family functions and huge checkouts by the foreigners in the backdrop of the Islamabad carnage that shook the entire country.

The industry sources confirmed to Dawn on Monday that massive cancellation of Iftar/dinner parties, conferences, advance and on-spot room reservations, business meetings, corporate dinners and other meetings etc., after the Saturday’s blasts in the capital.

The magnitude of overall per day business loss is estimated at Rs30 million if the hotels of Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi etc., are also included, while the government will have to suffer revenue losses in terms of sales tax, Pakistan Hotels Association Chairman Mustansar Zakir told Dawn on Monday.

Commenting on the possible repercussions on the hotel industry after the Islamabad incident, he said that the holding of conferences, business events, dinners etc., which normally gain momentum after Ramazan and Eid, is likely to suffer in view uncertain law and order situation that has enthused panic among business people and foreigners.

He said that the room occupancy in the port city’s leading hotels on Monday dropped to 23 per cent from 40-45 per cent while in Lahore it dipped to 25-30 per cent from 50-60 per cent.

However, he said the room occupancy in Islamabad and Peshawar was very negligible because there might be some foreign journalists and investigators were staying especially in the capital.

He said that the hotel industry usually relied heavily on some activities and improvement in the room occupancy from October to middle of December every year when many foreigners arrive to conduct annual business meetings with their local counterparts before going on Christmas holidays.

The foreigners may think visiting Pakistan if the lawlessness remains under control for the next one or two months, he added.

The PHA chairman claimed that the hotels in the city wore a deserted look on Monday as many foreigners had already flown back to their homes while others were in the process of departure.

He said that there were reports that some small countries had also issued strict travel advisories for their citizens asking them to restrict movement.

He said that the small hotel owners were suffering the most as visitors and businessmen from the upcountry had been avoiding staying in Karachi at nights due to lawlessness that had gripped the city for the last many months.

On new hotel investment projects, he said that for the last six months, there had been no new commitments of investment from any foreign investors for establishing any five star hotels.

“There are some hotel projects in the pipeline which have been initiated in the last three years during President Musharraf’s government, but progress on these projects has been very slow,” the PHA chairman added.