Rain effect: Hotel occupancy falls by 35% in Himachal Pradesh

Flash floods in Dharamshala besides heavy rain in Manali and Shimla over two days have led to dip in the number of visitors, while more bookings are being cancelled

Heavy rain across Himachal Pradesh for the past two days has triggered flash floods and landslides at several places and also led to a dip of 35% in the number of visitors to the hill state.

A market in Shimla packed with visitors on July 3. Himachal Pradesh saw a heavy influx of tourists from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi since the middle of June when the state government relaxed the Covid-19 restrictions. (Deepak Sansta/HT)

Himachal Pradesh had been seeing a heavy tourist influx from neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Delhi-NCR since the middle of June when the Covid-19 restrictions were eased as the number of positive cases declined and there was a need to rev up the economy, particularly the hospitality and tourism sectors. Such was the rush of visitors from the scorching plains that the Centre had to caution the Himachal Pradesh government to ensure the visitors adhered to Covid-appropriate behaviour.

“Occupancy in hotels is now dropping as are the bookings for the future, mainly because of the rain. There was a lot of tourist rush from North India. We are hopeful that the weather will be pleasant in the plains too after the rains there,” state tourism director Amit Kashyap said.

“There is a 35% decline in hotel occupancy. The flash floods have triggered the drop,” said Sanjay Sood, the president of the Shimla Hotel and Restaurateurs Association. Hotel occupancy in Shimla, which had shot up to 80% last weekend, would normally drop to 40% on weekdays, but this week many planning holidays in the hills had also cancelled their bookings, he said.

Gajendra Thakur, the president of the Manali Tourism Stakeholders Association, said, “There was a rush of tourists in Manali for a few days but it wasn’t as much as was being projected on social media. There is a drop now, especially since the last two days.”

Till June this year, about 18 lakh tourists had visited the state, including 2,744 foreigners. More than 1.64 lakh tourists visited Mandi alone, while 1 lakh visited Kangra, known for its temples.

The disregard for Covid-appropriate behaviour had forced the police to deploy more personnel to implement safety guidelines in the key destinations of Dharamshala, Kasauli, Shimla, Dalhousie, Kullu and Manali. Shimla police had launched a special drive to distribute masks to tourists.