Snow gives ray of hope to Shimla hoteliers

Navneet Rathore

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Shimla, February 4

The dwindling fortunes of tourism and hospitality sector in Shimla have witnessed a ray of hope in the last few days with the recent spell of snow increasing the tourist inflow into the town.

Tourists from Chandigarh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana visited Shimla and its adjoining tourist spots, including Kufri during the weekends.

The hotel occupancy in the town that was around 20 to 30 per cent during January went up to 50 to 60 per cent during the weekend.

Tourists were seen singing, dancing, clicking pictures, making videos and playing with snow at various tourist spots in the town.

Ashish, a tourist from Chandigarh who came to Shimla along with his family to spend his weekend, said they were not expecting snowfall when they came to the town on Saturday.

“It came as a pleasant surprise as the snowfall started as soon as we reached the Mall. My daughter is very happy and this trip has become a memorable one with snowfall,” he said.

Sandeep Kaur, another tourist from Chandigarh who had come to Shimla with her family to celebrate her husband’s birthday, said she was very happy after witnessing snowfall for the very first time. Mohinder Seth, president, Shimla Hotel and Tourism Stakeholders Association, said the hotel occupancy was very low in January due to lack of snow in the town giving anxious moments to hoteliers.

He said this spell of snow has brought relief to the hoteliers and people involved in the hospitality business.

As per Seth, the hotel

occupancy in Shimla in the past two to three days has reached 50 to 60 per cent, better than what tit was before the snowfall.

“We can now expect to have a better and profitable winter season as more tourists are expected to visit the town in the coming days,” he said.

Sanjeev Thakur, president, Shimla Vyapar Mandal, said stakeholders in Shimla suffered losses due to low tourist inflow in January.

He said the business during January was very low as most of the locals were not even in the town due to winter vacations.

“The business has picked up in Shimla after this recent spell of snow due to which tourist inflow in Shimla has increased. We hope that this inflow continues and our business will get a much needed boost in the coming days,” he said.

Meanwhile, light to moderate rainfall occurred here today and the minimum temperature was 3 degrees Celsius. The town also had low visibility due to dense fog which also disrupted the traffic movement.

Snowfall and rain is very likely to occur on Monday after which the weather will remain clear till February 9. The tourism and hospitality sector had also suffered huge losses due to torrential rains during the monsoon season.