Marginal relief for Shimla hoteliers

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 18

Durga Puja and Dasehra holidays have provided a breather to hotel Industry of Shimla which witnessed a lull during the past six months. Hotel occupancy has risen as the tourist flow has increased by 40 to 50 per cent.

Tourists from Bengal visit Shimla during Durga Puja. However, it is not being reflected in the occupancy of hotels as a large number of these tourists have diverted towards unregistered flats being provided by online companies in Shimla and its suburbs. Irony is that the number of illegal units is almost three times the registered hotels, lamented president of Tourism Industry Stakeholders Association M K Seth.

Only 268 hotels are registered with the Tourism Department with a provision of 4,356 rooms having 9,064-bed capacity against 670 illegal units with bed capacity thrice than that of the hotels, he said adding that travel agents were taking tourists straight from Narkanda and Rampur to Sangla and bringing them back to Narkanda with a day’s halt at Shimla. This had reduced the number of days tourists stay in Shimla from five to one, hitting the local business adversely.

Earlier, hotels used to be packed to capacity during the Dasehra break. Though the tourist inflow has increased it is still half as compared to the corresponding period last year. The weekend tourism which got a jolt due to acute water crisis in May and landslides during the monsoon season is still affecting tourism badly as tourists from Punjab and Haryana were preferring Uttarakhand to Himachal, said general secretary of the association Rahul Chawla.

“About 60 to 70 per cent of the population in the state is directly or indirectly dependent on tourism and the allied sectors. If the tourism sector is not promoted by the government, the employers would be left with no choice than to reduce staff”, says Devender Rana of a travel agency.

Taxi association has made it mandatory to get taxis registered with the association, failing which they would not be allowed to run. The business is already sluggish and now additional registration fees will put additional burden on small taxi operators running one or two taxis, he said.

Tourists opting for short stay in Queen of Hills 

• Tourists have been diverted towards unregistered flats being provided by online companies in Shimla and its suburbs. 
• The number of illegal units is almost three times the registered hotels, 
• Only 268 hotels are registered with the Tourism Department with a provision of 4,356 rooms having 9,064-bed capacity against 670 illegal units with bed capacity thrice than that of the hotels, 
• Travel agents were taking tourists straight from Narkanda and Rampur to Sangla and bringing them back to Narkanda with a day’s halt at Shimla. 
• This had reduced the number of days tourists stay in Shimla from five to one, hitting the local business adversely