Low tourist turnout in Shimla, Kullu-Manali worries hoteliers

Shimla/Kullu, November 9

Low turnout of tourists as compared to previous years in the festive season has become a cause of major worry for hoteliers, who say the tourism industry is witnessing a major slump.

There is a dip of almost 50 per cent in hotel occupancy in all major tourist destinations, including the state capital, Dharamsala-Chamba and Kullu-Manali. Normally, the tourist influx used to pick up after the monsoons with groups from West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra arriving here in large numbers.

“The hotel occupancy in Shimla area is down to barely 25 per cent as compared to 60 per cent in the previous years during the festive season, starting from the Dasehra,” said Mohinder Seth, president of the Shimla Hoteliers Association. Similarly, the hotel occupancy in most Manali hotels is down to 20 per cent from 50 per cent around the same time of the year.

Hoteliers attributed the slump to factors like adverse publicity due to the devastation caused during the unprecedented rains in the months of July-August. Kullu-Manali Paryatan Vikas Mandal president Anup Ram Thakur said that the tourists were still skeptical about visiting Kullu-Manali after the negative propaganda related to floods spread like rapid fire on social media.

“There is an urgent need to have positive marketing, assuring people that now it is totally safe to come here,” he said. He said that it was essential to convey the positive message to the masses through the tourism offices of the government in different states.

Most people associated with the tourism industry point out that the impact of economic slowdown is reflecting on the hotel industry. There are almost 1,200 hotels, 1,000 bread and breakfast units, guest houses and homestays in Manali itself. The number of unregistered tourism units could take this figure up to 3,000. As such thousands of people are directly or indirectly dependent on the tourism sector for their livelihood.

Another sore point with the tourism stakeholders is the imposition of road tax on outside vehicles entering the Himachal. Hoteliers point out that this has hit arrival of groups in a big way, especially from West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra, who visit during the festive season now.

Even though the state government has reduced the special road taxes the arrivals have already been hit this year. The Tri City Tempo Travellers Union, Chandigarh, has demanded complete rollback of this tax.