Snowfall revives hopes of hoteliers

Dipender Manta

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Mandi, December 2

Fresh snowfall has elated the hoteliers of the Kullu-Manali area, which revived their hopes of progress in the tourism industry here in the coming winter. The tourists visiting Kullu-Manali were also upbeat after the snowfall, which occurred two days ago.

According to hoteliers, online room booking inquiries have increased slightly after fresh snowfall, which revived their hopes that tourist footfall will increase in the coming days. Currently, there is hardly 30 to 35 per cent room occupancy in hotels, which may increase to above 50 per cent next week, they hope.

After fresh snowfall in the Manali region, tourists were thronging to the Solang valley, Gulaba and near Atal Tunnel. Hoteliers said that there was sufficient snow on the ground in the Manali region at tourist spots like Solang valley, Atal Tunnel, Koksar and Gulaba.

After the rain disaster in July, especially in Mandi and Kullu region, the tourism industry of Kullu-Manali was on the verge of collapse as there were no tourists in sight. For the last two days, there has been a slight increase in tourist arrival, which raised a hope of good business for hoteliers in the district.

Budhi Prakash Thakur, a hotelier of Manali, said “since after fresh snow, online inquiries for room bookings in hotels have increased. We are hopeful that in the coming days tourist footfall will increase considerably to Kullu-Manali.”

Gajender Thakur, president of the Federation of Himachal Hotels and Restaurant Associations, said: “Snowfall is a major attraction for tourists in Himachal. With the advent of snowfall, now the tourist footfall has started gaining momentum in Kullu-Manali. The room occupancy in hotels of Manali has increased up to 35 per cent, which may increase further in the coming days. Now Christmas, New Year Eve and winter carnival events are due in Manali. We invite the tourists to visit Manali, which is ready to greet them. The NHAI authorities have restored the Chandigarh-Manali highway for smooth traffic fully, which was damaged during monsoon badly.”