Kerala Taxi Unions Play Spoilsport To Tourist Boom

At a time when tourism is booming in Kerala, an age-old problem has reared its head, unionisation of the taxi trade. State Tourism Minister PA Mohammed Riyas has depicted a rosy picture of 1.19 crore domestic tourists visiting Kerala in the first half of 2025, which is a 10.5% jump over the previous year. Foreign arrivals too climbed 6.87% to touch 3.83 lakh. Amidst the announcement, came the news of a college professor and her entourage from Mumbai being harassed on their trip to hill station, Munnar. The professor took to social media to highlight that while she had a nice holiday and Malayalees by and large were nice to them, she will not be returning to Kerala. This was due to the harassment they encountered at the hands of the local taxi trade. The visiting team, during their Munnar trip, was not allowed to use rider app vehicles like Uber, Ola etc. In fact, they were physically blocked by local taxi drivers and not allowed to alight at their destination. They were also not allowed to hail an online cab for their return journey. And complaints made to police bore no fruit as both the taxi unions and cops have the full patronage of the CPM party. After the blog went viral some taxi drivers were arrested and cops suspended. Just like mindless trade unionism crippled our industry growth, tourism will also pay the price, warns Jose Dominic, a veteran hotelier and industry leader. This is not a problem limited to tourist destinations. There are unofficial ban zones for online cabs and auto rickshaws at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports. The unauthorised curbs on online taxis is not a Marxist phenomenon but also in BJP-run Goa state.