Publicise Manali carnival outside state to lure tourists: Hoteliers

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, December 16

Hoteliers of Manali have urged the Kullu district administration and the HP Tourism Department to do promotional advertisement of the winter carnival outside the state to attract more tourists to Manali during the five-day event. The winter carnival is scheduled to be organised from January 2 to 6.

The hoteliers said that it had been observed in the past years that the winter carnival celebrations were unable to produce the desired results to the hotel industry of Kullu-Manali and failed to attract a large number of tourists. The reason is believed to be poor publicity of this event outside the state.

The hoteliers feel that there is a need on the part of the state government to ask the district administration and the tourism department to make arrangements for the publicity of this event outside the state.

Hem Raj Sharma, a hotelier, said that “without promotional advertisement of this event outside the state, we believe that it would fail to bring the desired results for the hotel industry of Kullu-Manali. For the past few years, we have observed that the winter carnival has failed to attract considerable number of tourists. The reason is poor promotional efforts of this event outside the state as tourists remain unaware about the event.”

“There is a need to make this event attractive for tourists. Winter sports activities should be included along with the cultural activities. This event should be organised in the middle of March, when the environment is more suitable,” he suggested.

Anup Thakur, president of Kullu-Manali Paryatan Vikas Mandal said that “we are urging the district administration and tourism department to ensure the celebration of winter carnival at Manali on the lines of Goa carnival to attract more tourists.”

Deputy Commissioner Kullu Ashutosh Garg said that efforts were being made to do promotional advertisement of this event outside the state through social media and other means of media to attract the tourists to Kullu-Manali.