Hospitality players seek survey on room availability to tap city’s tourism potential

City-based hospitality players are of the view that in the absence of any latest survey on hotel room availability, they were grappling with policy paralysis. The Punjab government has not conducted a survey in this regard in the past 13 years.

The Punjab Heritage Tourism and Promotion Board (PHTPB) had conducted the last survey in the fiscal year 2011-12 that had brought out that the number of hotel rooms in the city was then 4,050. Those rooms were available in 240 accommodation units which included 198 hotels besides inns, dharamshalas, rest-houses and guest-houses.

A hotelier, Satnam Singh Kanda, said people interested in investment in the hospitality sector cannot rely on old data. He urged the government to adopt a mechanism to keep updating the data that should be readily available in the public domain. Latest data in the hospitality sector was a major area of concern for the investors. In its absence, they are groping in the dark, he said.

Gurinder Singh, a tourist guide, said tourism does not figure as an important subject in the scheme of things of the incumbent government. Currently, Tarunpreet Singh Sond is the Tourism Minister. Earlier, the department was represented by Anmol Gagan Maan. He said both of them visited once or twice the city which is considered the religious and cultural capital of Punjab. Tourism promotion never figured in the policies of the government, he alleged.

The Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Punjab, has only three Tourism Officers to look after its five offices situated at the Amritsar railway station, international airport, Attari and two at the Golden Temple. No official is getting government pay-grade and all are outsourced employees, whose salaries are not even well defined. So, it is but natural that its offices here are facing a staff crunch.

Adding to the misery of the outsourced staff on duty is that they are being paid less wages. So, they are always on the look-out for opportunities abroad.

At least, three Tourism Officers have left the job to settle abroad in the past five years.

Rameshinder Singh Sandhu, a travel writer, says opportunities for tourism expansion are galore in the holy city which needs to channelised for commercial exploitation. Scenic beauty of the countryside, Punjabi rural lifestyle and Hari Ke Pattan wetland remain untapped.

To realise these objectives, a team of dedicated professionals are required. Eight years ago, the Amritsar Culture and Tourism Development Authority (ACTDA) was rolled out but the government failed to implement it in its entirety. Till date, its jurisdiction is restricted to the Heritage Street and the Golden Temple entrance plaza while it neither has any office or staff. He demanded its complete implementation to bring in the desired results.