No room, Manali tourists spend night in cars

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Manali, June 25

The already chocked hotel industry in Manali is unable to accommodate the heavy tourist rush it is getting these days. Many tourists complained that they were forced to spend night in their vehicles as they failed to get room.

Long traffic jams at various places from Mandi to Manali added to their woes. Sonam and his friends from Punjab, who arrived here on Saturday, said due to unavailability of rooms they had to spend the night in their vehicle.

Many tourists without advance bookings faced the similar situation. Shakil Ahamad, a tourist from Jammu, said the traffic jam had made the situation worse. He said it took him five hours to reach Kullu from Mandi because of the traffic jam, which otherwise took one-and-a-half hours.

Due to the ongoing unrest in J and K, a majority of tourists are preferring Kullu and Manali, Shimla and Dharamsala.

Hoteliers in Kullu and Manali are a happy lot because of the heavy tourist influx these days as they are having cent per cent advance bookings till the end of this month.

Kullu-Manali Hoteliers’ Association president Gajender Thakur said: “A large number of tourists are arriving in the town as it’s a festive weekend. We have advance bookings till the end of this month and a majority of hotels are having cent per cent occupancy”.

He said in Kullu and Manali, there were around 1,200 hotels, including some homestay, but due to the sudden tourist influx this weekend, tourists were facing a lot of difficulty in getting accommodation.