Hotel occupancy dips to 10% in Kangra, hoteliers fume

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, December 8

Tourism in Kangra region is at lowest ebb with hoteliers reporting just 10 per cent occupancy. The hoteliers and other people associated with the tourism industry are demanding urgent government intervention in reviving tourism in the area. The hoteliers said the hotel occupancy in December last year ranged between 50 and 60 per cent.

Planning promotional events

The government is making plans for promoting tourism in the state, which will be implemented soon. The monsoon disaster has impacted tourism in Himachal, but the state has come out of its negative fallout within a few months. The Tourism Department is planning promotional events to attract tourists. — RS Bali, chairman, Himachal Pradesh tourism development corporation

The hoteliers are blaming the erratic taxation policies of the state government for sagging tourism industry in the region. Most of the travel agents in different parts of country have stopped selling Himachal due to this reason, they allege.

Sanjay Kumbhkarni, a hotelier from Dharamsala, said tourism had never been this bad in the Kangra region. The hotels have just 10 per cent bookings. There are not many bookings even for the New Year Eve. The government should immediately do something to promote tourism in the region as in Kangra alone livelihood of about 1 lakh people was directly and indirectly associated with the tourism sector, he added.

Ashwani Bamba, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kangra, said two factors have hit tourism in the region. Initially, the monsoon disaster hit tourism. Then the government increased taxes on tourist vehicles registered under All-India Tourist Permits coming from other states to Himachal. Due to it, travel agents from leading states as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi have stopped selling Himachal.

They are sending groups of tourists from said states to Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand instead of Himachal. We have been trying to persuade tour operators, but our resources are limited. So the government should intervene and sell the state through advertisement campaigns and persuade the tour operators to send tourists to Himachal, he said.

Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Association, Dharamsala, said due to low tourist footfall many people who had taken properties on lease in upper Dharamsala region, including Bhagsunag and McLeodganj, were leaving.

The Adventure Tourist Operator Association of Dharamsala has written to the government against imposing petty taxes of tourists coming for trekking in the region. They have alleged that recently the Eco-Tourism Society of the Forest Department has imposed Rs 200 on every trekker going to Triund in Dharamsala. This would definitely affect the trekking and adventure tourism in the region, they said.