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Profit declining, courtesy short stay of tourists

Hotel occupancy increases during weekends, holidays, but tourists prefer going back due to lack of efforts to prolong stay

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Bhanu P Lohumi

Despite heavy rush of tourists during the snow season, especially during the Christmas and New Year, the profit of tourism and allied industries are on the decline due to the short stay of tourists, especially in the capital city of Shimla.

Saturation at popular tourist destinations, including Shimla, Manali and Dharamsala, failure to explore unknown and lesser known destinations in rural remote areas, poor infrastructure, bad condition of roads, inadequate air-services and rail network, shortage of professionally-trained manpower and paucity of parking places are some of the reasons responsible for the present day scenario.

FACTFILE

  • 3382: Registered* hotels with 44,552 rooms and bed capacity of 91,223

  • 1,656: home-stay units with 4,481 rooms and 9,144 bed capacity

  • 899: photographers

  • 2,912: Travel agencies

  • 1,314: Guides

  • Registered by the state Tourism Department

Tardy implementation 

The railway network expansion projects are progressing at a snail’s pace, while the execution of 69 National Highway projects sanctioned three years ago are hanging fire. Two major four-laning projects (Parwanoo- Shimla and Kiratpur-Manali) have become a bane of tourism industry and commuting in these roads has become exhausting, perilous and time consuming. Both projects are running behind schedule and frequent landslides are causing disruption of traffic. The ambitious Rohtang Tunnel project, which would have changed the lives of tribal people and given a boost to adventure tourism, is under-construction for the past 17 years and has missed several deadlines.

Skiing and ice-skating

Skiing and ice-skating, a major attraction of Shimla during the winter season, has become a thing of the past. The last skiing carnival at Kufri was held in February 1968, but skiing continued till the early ’90s. However, ski slopes at Kufri, which used to be covered with impeccable white snow have turned brown. Not only this, even Narkanda has disappointed ski lovers, as the snow-line is moving upwards and the frequency of heavy snowfall has been reduced drastically.

Another trouble encountered by the tourism industry is that advisories are issued even after moderate snowfall, asking tourists not to rush and wait till the weather settles. The ice-skating season, which used to start from the end of November and continued till mid-March with 80-110 sessions has shrunk to two to three weeks and no national ice-skating championship has been held in Asia’s biggest natural ice-skating for the past several years.

Home-stays mushrooming 

Mushrooming of legal and illegal home-stay units and hotels registered under bed and breakfast (B&B) scheme in the periphery of popular tourist destinations have also hit business. The home stay policy for rural area, which offers several incentives to promoters, has not made inroads into interior areas and is eating into the profits of genuine stakeholders.

Due to cut-throat competition, the small and medium hotels are banking on guides and taxi operators for bringing clients and getting huge commission, while online travel agencies are booking illegal and legal home stay accommodations and offering huge discounts.

Inadequate parking space 

The twin problems of the shortage of parking space and traffic congestion are acting as major impediments in the growth of tourism in popular hill resorts, especially Shimla and surrounding areas, as the police indiscriminately challan outside vehicles parked on the roadside. Traffic congestion on the other hand causes harassment as private or leased parking overcharge, which has become an accepted practice and tourists are at the receiving end.

Tourist arrival increasing

The tourist arrival is increasing marginally during the past one decade except 2018, when the worst water crisis hit the state capital and tourism industry earned a bad name. It was mainly due to natural beauty, pollution-free environment and salubrious climate. In 2018, the state witnessed sharp fall in tourist arrival registering a decrease of 16.08 per cent as compared to 2017. The decrease in arrival of foreign and domestic tourists was 24.29 per cent and 15.87 per cent, respectively. As many as 1,64,50,503 tourists visited Himachal during 2018.

“The summer, winter and autumn seasons, considered to be the peak tourist seasons, still attract tourists but not because of better facilities,” said Sushant Nag, a local hotelier. Tourists plan their visit coinciding with the holidays and there is a huge rush of tourists during the winter season only because of holidays, irrespective of the fact whether there is any snowfall or not.

The occupancy in hotels increases during the weekends and holidays round the year, but the stay of tourists is shrinking, as no concerted efforts have been made to prolong the stay.

Rush during Xmas, New Year

There was a surge in tourist arrival in Shimla on the eve of Christmas, but tourists were wary of visiting Shimla due to the rally of Home Minister Amit Shah on December 27 and occupancy in hotels in the main town is expected to reach 90 to 100 per cent and snowfall on New Year’s Eve as predicted by the MeT office would give further boost to tourism and the winter season, which lasts about two weeks, may extend by a few days.

The hotels in the main town are full during the year-end as people rush to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year. If there is snowfall after New Year, it is an added advantage, as tourists go crazy to witness snowfall in the town.

The inflow in Himachal in the last 10 years

Year Total Foreign tourists
2009

1,14,37,155

4,00,583
2010 1,32,65,602 4,53,616
2011 1,50,89,401
4,84,518

2012

1,61,46,332
5,00,284

2013

1,51,29,835
4,14,249

2014

1,63,14,400
3,89,699

2015

1,75,31,153
4, 06,108

2016

1,84,50,520
4,52,770

2017

1,96,01,533
4,70,992
2018 1,64,50,503
3, 56,568

Increase tourist stay

The tourism, hotels and restaurants associations have come out with attractive proposals to increase the stay of tourists, which has come down to one to two days from a week and suggested popularising British-era snow-pits, heritage walks, joy rides in the Shimla-Kalka toy train, trekking in forest area from IIAS to Glen and developing eco-tourism sites.

Paragliding activity started in Junga would increase the stay of tourists by at least one day and would also give boost to tourism activities on the Shimla-Junga-Sadhupul-Chail stretch said Sanjay Sood, president of the Shimla Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Heritage walks have been started and a circuit of Advance Studies, Glen, Annandale has added another dimension. The Tourism Department should display a list of tourist spots with distance, time and mode of transportation in all hotels to promote unknown destinations in and around Shimla, he said.

“We have identified snow-well in Jakhoo area, which can be developed as another tourist attraction besides birding stretches at Ghanahatti, Shoghi, Narkanda and Chail,” says MK Seth, president of Tourism Industry Stakeholders’ Association, adding that the hop-on-hop-off service would be successful from AG Chowk to Kennedy Chowk and would solve the parking problem as well.

“Moreover, jungle safaris should be started on the trail from Advance Studies to Glen and the Army Museum. We have also spoken to the railway authorities for booking complete coach till Tara Devi and Kandaghat. Tours covering Tara Devi temple, Mahu Nag temple and Sankat Mochan temple from Shoghi railway station would be started. In the Kandaghat circuit, tours would be started for Sadhupul, Water Park and Mohan Mikin Park, which would extend the stay by a day,” he said.

Tourism themes 

Himachal is bestowed with natural and man-made assets such as lofty Himalayas, lakes, rivers, snow, rural landscape, pilgrimage spots including temples, gurdwaras and monasteries, heritage structures, traditional dance forms and attires, local handicrafts and cuisine, and some well-established commercial destinations including Shimla, Manali and Dharamsala. These assets of the state shall be considered to create tourism products for tourism development. 

Most of these initiatives existed in earlier plans and policies, but investors were not interested and wanted the government to play a pro-active role and create the basic infrastructure to facilitate investors.

Interestingly, maximum number of tourists is pilgrims and devotes, who come in large numbers to visit famous ancient temples, gurdwaras, Buddhist monasteries and churches, but there is no provision for providing cheap and affordable accommodation to these tourists.

The state government has set a target of signing MOUs worth over Rs15,000 crore in the tourism sector during the Global Investors’ Meet and lured by the incentives and exemptions from various inspections and approvals for three years, stakeholders in real estate are manoeuvring to convert housing projects into tourism projects to purchase land in relaxation of Section 118 of the Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, which bars all non-agriculturists, including bona fide Himachalis, from purchasing land without the permission of the government.

Tourism Policy 2019

In order to boost investment in the tourism sector by acting as a facilitator, the government framed the Tourism Policy-2019 focusing on eight sectors including eco-tourism, agro/organic tourism, snow tourism, lake tourism, culture and heritage tourism, adventure tourism health and wellness tourism, pilgrimage tourism and MICE tourism. The policy initiatives with short, medium and long term goals are targeted to be achieved by 2029. The objectives of the policy include encouraging tourism diversification through theme-based development, safeguard state’s tourist destinations through sustainable interventions, ensure sustainable tourism , build capacity and develop quality human resource for the tourism industry, provide safe, secure and unique “tourism for all” objective and create an enabling environment for investments for sustainable tourism.

Ecotourism

It covers all nature-based forms of tourism, in which the main motivation of tourists is the observation and appreciation of nature as well as traditional cultures prevailing in natural areas, having minimised negative impacts. It benefits local communities, generates revenue and supports local economy and preserves ecosystem and biodiversity. Bird watching, trekking, eco-trails, nature parks, eco-huts and camping are some tourism products that shall be developed to promote eco-tourism.

Agro/organic tourism

This involves agriculture-based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm and orchard. Development of village infrastructure, organising cultural shows, providing eco-friendly accommodations amid farms and orchards, streamlining facilitation procedures at airports, human resource development, creating awareness, improving public participation and facilitation of private sector are important points of action for developing agro tourism

Snow tourism

Himachal experiences extreme winters and despite sharp dip in the mercury, winter and snow tourism of the region is extremely magnetic, attracting tourists in large numbers. Activities including snow trekking and camping, skiing, gondola rides, heli-skiing or simply playing in snow are popular during this time.

Lake tourism

Himachal houses several natural and man-made lakes including Prashar Lake, Chandra Tal, Deepak Tal, Mani Mahesh Lake, Maharana Pratap Sagar, Gobind Sagar Lake, which offer numerous opportunities. The state is also looking forward to provide access to man-made reservoirs for conducting water sports adventure activities. Apart from this, the fast-flowing rivers of Himachal are popular for activities including river rafting, angling and water zorbing, rappelling and overnight camping along the river banks.

Adventure Tourism

It involves exploration or travel with a certain degree of risk (real or perceived), or physical danger which may require special skills and

physical exertion. Adventure tourism attracts high value customers, who are passionate and can take risk.

Cultural and heritage tourism

The cultural and heritage tourism is linked to state’s culture, lifestyle of people in specific geographical areas, history of people, their art, architecture, religion(s), and other elements that helps shape their way of life. Eco-products, including handicrafts, natural produce, cuisines, herbal cosmetics and products, medicines, ethnic ornaments, souvenirs of Himachal, are quite popular and promoting these products help in economic uplift of local villagers.

Pilgrimage tourism

This is an important segment, as Himachal is known as ‘DevBhoomi’, meaning the abode of the Gods. The state not only has Hindu temples, but many colonial churches, Sikh gurdwaras and centuries-old Buddhist monasteries, which are important places of pilgrimage and attract thousands of devotees from all over the country.

Health and wellness tourism

Wellness tourism is travel associated with enhancing personal well-being through physical, psychological, or spiritual activities. Wellness tourists are proactive in seeking improvement in health and quality of life. Wellness tourism is often correlated with medical tourism, where the traveller is looking for medical aid to get cured mostly through indigenous medicines and therapy.

Film tourism

Hill locations of the state are quite popular with the film industry due to their projection in films and television series. Film tourism is an excellent vehicle for destination marketing and creates opportunities for product and community entrepreneur development.

MICE

The MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market refers to a specialised niche group of tourism dedicated to planning, booking, and facilitating conferences, seminars, and event management.


‘Nai Raahein, Nai Manzilein’

To explore and develop hidden gems, a new programme Nai Raahein, Nai Manzilein has been launched and to start with, Bir-Billing, an internationally known site on paragliders’ circuit in Kangra, Janjehli a hidden rural charm in Mandi and Chanshal slopes that turn into pristine ski-slopes in the winter season in Shimla hills are being developed. Activities including House Boat accommodation, Shikara rides, camping and water sports are being introduced in man-made reservoirs including Maharana Pratap Sagar Dam in Kangra and Larji Dam in Kullu to attract tourists — Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister

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