PANAJI: The collapse of British charter flight operator Thomas Cook UK is likely to cause a loss of Rs 100 crore to the state’s economy and, consequently, force local hoteliers to lower their rates, said industry stakeholders. To make matters worse, with the demand for air tickets from UK and Europe to Goa increasing, scheduled flights operators have increased their fares for the five-month charter tourism period.According to Goa’s tourism sector insiders, travel agents are calling up hotels and resorts with offers to fill up the unsold inventory if hotel rates are reduced. “When rooms are vacant, people start dropping prices. Travel agents also take advantage and start asking for special rates,” Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias told TOI.The 178-year-old British tour company filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, scrapping hundreds of flights across the world, including to Goa. On an average, Thomas Cook Airlines booked 35,000 seats from UK to Goa every season through its charters.Goa’s tourism sector watchers say that with cancellations already piling up, two-star and three-star hoteliers are desperate to attract customers for rooms that had been blocked for foreign tourists.“It is a sudden crash and hoteliers don’t know what else to do. Hoteliers are desperate and it becomes difficult to sell overnight. There is undercutting happening because it has become a buyers’ market,” said Goan Small and Medium Hotels Association North Goa vice-president Padma Nair.Of 80 lakh tourists who visited Goa till December-end during the last tourist season, 9.3 lakh were foreign tourists, showing a marginal increase of 2.95% compared to the 23% rise during the previous season. In 2018, Goa received around 2.9 lakh UK visitors, of whom 59,900 arrived through charter flights, while Russian visitors stood at around 3.3 lakh.“From what we hear, the Russian sales are also poor for now so when demand goes down, the operators call up and say that they can fill up the rooms if rates are dropped,” Messias said.It is not just small hoteliers who are facing the brunt. Goa has a parallel hospitality industry that operates during the tourist season where unregistered guesthouses and even apartments are let out to tourists during the October to February period. Britishers and other European tourists prefer to spend their winters in the tropics where they can enjoy the sun and sand.“A large quantum of foreign tourists in Goa come from Britain and Europe who would certainly be impacted. However, for the lodging market in Goa, the impact could be restricted to mid-market hotels and guesthouses who used to thrive on such tourists, especially between October and March,” said Jaideep Dang, managing director at JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group.Goa’s tourism sector is now counting on other airlines to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of Thomas Cook UK. Tourism ministry officials met with Air India to explore the possibility of it operating additional flights between UK and Goa. A UK-based charter company has also expressed interest in operating flights to Goa while TUI Airways intends to increase the number of flights it operates between UK and Goa. “Nothing is clear and we don’t really expect things to crystalize for the next 15 days,” said Messias.