To boost tourism, improve air connectivity, say hoteliers

Shimla, August 9

In view of dwindling occupancy in hotels, Shimla Hotels and Tourism Stakeholders’ Association has demanded that air connectivity to the city be improved to facilitate tourists. The association members have alleged that tourism has got affected adversely after landslides and road blockades following heavy rain recently.

Need to increase number of flights

There is a need to increase the number of flights per day. A large number of tourists come from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi during weekends. The heli taxi service needs to be operated from important places of the region. This will help in boosting tourist arrival and improve occupancy in hotels. Mohinder Seth, president of association

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Mohinder Seth, president of the association, said, “Heli taxi service needs to be operated from important places of Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Dehradun and similarly from main cities of Haryana to facilitate tourists willing to come to Shimla. Presently, only two air services are available between Chandigarh and Shimla – an ATR-42 aircraft of Alliance Airways and an 18-seater helicopter of Pawan Hans. Both the flights take off with only half of their seating capacity due to turbulence issues.”

Seth added, “There is a need to increase the number of flights per day. A large number of tourists come from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi during weekends. The heli taxi service needs to be operated from important places of the region. This will help in boosting tourist arrival and improve occupancy in hotels. The present air fares need to be subsidised at least by the time the highways of Himachal are fully restored.”

“We urge the state government to take up the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation Central Government to subsidise the air fares for the flights connecting Shimla, Kangra and Kullu and increase the number of flights per day from Delhi. The heli taxi service can be introduced from important towns of Punjab and Haryana. Tourism is the backbone of the economy of the state. Every possible effort should be made to improve tourist footfall. This will help in improving the financial health of stakeholders and also increase revenue of the state exchequer,” said association vice-president Neeraj Gupta.

He added, “There is a need to increase connectivity to Shimla by introducing Volvo bus service from Shimla to important cities of Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The Volvo service will boost inflow of tourists and also decrease the load of vehicular traffic.”