North sees significant rise in tourist footfall

Vijay C Roy

Chandigarh, August 9

The tourism industry, which is the mainstay of hill states’ economy, witnessed a significant growth in recent months resulting in increase in occupancy rate of hotels, especially in the four and five-star category.

“In the past two-three months, travellers in the northern region have been preferring hill stations and leisure locations to beat the heat. Places in Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Uttarakhand have been the go-to destinations and attracting a lot of tourists. The categories, especially leisure and luxury, were much in demand adding to full occupancy and the rate per room touched almost 100% of pre-Covid levels in some places,” said KB Kachru, vice-president, Hotel Association of India and chairman emeritus and principal adviser (South Asia), Radisson Hotel Group.

The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation reported around 80% hotel occupancy between March and June. The state government is also promoting religious tourism and adventure sports to attract more tourists.

According to data, weekend stays were much in demand and people preferred customised experiences at star hotels in Himachal Pradesh.

At ITC Hotels, staycations and short-haul trips to the hills and beaches are doing exceedingly well. Welcomhotel Chail and Shimla by ITC Hotels have witnessed a strong demand as travellers chose to holiday at motorable destinations that promised elevated levels of health and safety.

“Both these properties in Himachal continue to register high occupancies with increased length of stay,” said Amaan Kidwai, Area Manager, Welcomhotels North & General Manager, Welcomhotel Sheraton, Delhi.

According to Vibhas Prasad, Director, Leisure Hotels Group, tourism in leisure destinations such as Dharamsala, Kasauli, among others in Himachal, saw a significant resurgence in demand in the past two years as soon as the Covid restrictions were lifted. “We anticipate this spike will continue throughout H1 (until September),” he said. Similar patterns of travel were observed at many resorts in Uttarakhand too.