ahmedabad receding cases of covid19 and relaxation of curbs imposed to check its spread as well as relatively cool weather have encouraged travel and tourism the pandemic had heavily battered this sector tourist destinations such as diu saputara daman udaipur mount abu statue of unity sasan gir somnath and dwarka among many others are at present teeming with people who were perhaps waiting to get outindustry estimates indicate that the business has gained traction and bookings over each weekend till the end of august are full across all nearby tourist destinations within and around the statewith relaxation in covid19 restrictions thousands of tourists from south gujarat are rushing to closer destinations saputara and daman on weekends saputara is chaotic with nasty traffic snarls whereas the bulk of hotels in daman are running full even though beaches are yet to openrestaurants and hotels have good bookings on weekends the tourist flow will increase gradually as the government announces some more relaxations said harish tangal vicepresident daman hoteliers associationthe same is the case with saputara too people from nearby destinations are driving down to saputara for weekend but those from farther destinations including neighbouring states are avoiding travel said shamitabh jena associate vicepresident lords group of hotelstour operators claim shorter getaways are being preferred over longhaul travel and people are opting for personally driveable destinations to avoid public transport and risks of proximity to strangershotel business ringing in offseasongreater traction in travel is also boosting hotel occupancies at tourist destinations across the state and even in the nearby states estimates by hotels and restaurants association hra gujarat suggest that average occupancy levels at tourist destinations have grown upwards of 50 and this is a good sign of revival for both the tourism and hospitality sectorthe statue of unity has been witnessing tremendous footfalls through the week and running near sold out over the weekends nikhil aggarwal partner at lallooji and sons which manages the sou tent city said the turnout is decent people who were cooped up within homes through the second wave are now beginning to step out some 61 rooms at the tent city are 100 sold out over the weekends the occupancy level is 100 over the weekend at hotels in diu junagadh sasan dwarka and mandvi of kutch according to travel agents industry players said that such a rush is usually seen over the festive season and longweekend holidaysbeing the onset of monsoon july is usually a slack period for tourism however this time after the second wave the tourism business has picked up significantly with hotels across diu remaining full said a hotelier based in diuthe gir national park is closed because of the lion mating season but the region is attracting tourists who go there for short getaways devaliya safari park is still open and so is the girnar ropeway which are becoming big crowdpullersa number of resorts at nearby destinations are also running full over the weekends we took a break with family after