Kangra hoteliers want govt to lift night curfew

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, November 25

The state government’s decision to impose night curfew in four districts of the state, including Kangra, till December 15 to contain the spread of Covid has drawn flak from the tourism and hotel industry of the region.

Hoteliers said the decision had jeopardised the survival and revival of the tourism business.

Ashwani Bamba, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association, Kangra, said ever since night curfew had been imposed, 25 per cent hotel bookings for December had been cancelled. Besides, travel agents had stopped taking queries for new bookings.

Bamba said the district tourism industry was looking forward towards making up for the losses incurred during the lockdown through tourist arrival towards the month-end.

However, the current measures by the government had once again hit their business hard, at least till March, he alleged. Members of the association said the surge in Covid cases had been reported in rural areas. Tourism hotspots in Kangra and McLeodganj had not seen any fresh case in the last one month.

“Covid cases are increasing in rural areas due to weddings and political rallies,” they alleged. Stakeholders of the tourism industry have urged the local police not to harass tourists from other states in the name of restrictions.

A hotelier said police officials had erected nakas near Dhaliara and Bankhandi on the Chintpurini-Kangra national highway, where tourist vehicles were being stopped on one pretext or another.

Bamba said the state hotel associations had called a meeting in Shimla on November 28. If their demands were not met, the hoteliers would be forced to take to the streets.

Another hotelier said the tourism industry in the Kangra region had already been suffering as the government was yet to take any decision on the plying of inter-state luxury buses. Besides, train services were suspended due to the farmers’ agitation in Punjab. The hotel and tourism industry provides direct and indirect employment to about one lakh people in the region.

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