Kasauli hoteliers gear up for New Year celebrations

Ambika Sharma

Solan, December 25

After registering a lean Christmas today, owners are quite optimistic that their hotels in the Kasauli area will be packed to capacity for the New Year eve.

Deserted roads

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• Roads wore a deserted look on Sunday with no traffic snarls as movement of vehicles remained smooth due to scarce tourist rush
• Since the day remained dry and snow eluding visitors, it seemed tourists preferred to keep away from hills
• Hoteliers were gearing up for the New Year as advance bookings from various places have been pouring in since the last fortnight

With few bookings and even fewer walk-ins today, tourists preferred to take a stroll in Kasauli town and were even seen dancing to the tune of Punjabi beats on roads rather than visit hotels for a quick munch.

Roads wore a deserted look today with no traffic snarls as movement of vehicles remained smooth due to scarce tourist rush. Since the day remained dry with little sun and snow eluding visitors, it seemed tourists preferred to keep away from hills today.

Hoteliers were gearing up for the New Year as advance bookings from various places like Nodia, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana as well as Chandigarh have been pouring in since the last fortnight.

An official of a resort in Kasauli said: “We have registered packed capacities for the New Year eve. Since it falls on the weekend, guests have made bookings from December 30 onwards. This has come as a blessing in disguise as guests will leave on Sunday after spending two days at our hotels.”

He said the low turnout of tourists today could be an offshoot of the rising Covid cases as it had created a scare among visitors to remain confined to homes. He hoped it would not hit the tourism industry as before.

Slew of preparations have been made by hoteliers to make the New Year special with live band performance and disc jockeys. Multiple cuisines would also be available in the evenings to give guests a special feel.

Several resorts, including bed and breakfast and home stay units, have come up around Kasauli in the last two decades given the overwhelming demand. Getting a room during the peak season, however, continues to be tough as the tourist arrivals has also registered a corresponding increase.

Tourism units located away from the town amidst the salubrious pines are much in demand. “Guests from metro cities like Delhi look for peaceful sojourn amidst green hills. They prefer home stays that have crept up in large numbers around Kasauli,” informed Brij, a local guest house owner.

Hoteliers, however, rued that low power voltage and abrupt cuts were creating problems and they had to switch to generator sets every day for some hours.