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Tourism takes a hit in Himachal amid second wave of Covid
The circumstances are such that the occupancy in hotels in major hill stations is again on a downhill slide
Just when the tourism in Himachal Pradesh was showing signs of revival, the second wave of Covid-19 spelled doom for the industry with the hoteliers staring at another year of loss and workforce fearing about job loss.
Last year, they had somehow managed to survive despite the big Covid spike, but if the situation spirals out of control this time, many would be left with no option but shut their operations while others would have to further lay off the staff, the hoteliers fear.
The circumstances are such that the occupancy in hotels in major hill stations is again on a downhill slide.
“The occupancy is almost nil except for sporadic arrivals at the weekends,” says Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Dharamshala.
The advance bookings have been cancelled, he said, adding that if the situation doesn’t improve soon, this year would be tougher than the preceding.
“Last year, we, by some means, managed expenses of staff but it would be impossible this year,” said Gandhi.
It would eventually result in job loss in the hotel industry, he added.
Vijay Inder Karan, another Dharamshala-based hotelier, said the occupancy which had reached 40%-50% December onwards has again come down below 10%.
“There are no advance bookings. There is only walk-in tourist,” said Karan.
He said the hospitality is the most neglected sector and there is no support from the government. Industry is staring at bankruptcy, closure of businesses and mass unemployment, he added.
Karan said last year before the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown, he had employed about 30 people in his unit.
The losses in the business forced us to lay off the staff and now there are 14 people left. If this situation continues, I would not be able to sustain more than four to five staffers, he said.
Not only the hoteliers have been hit, but the people in the allied sectors were also bearing the brunt.
The president of Manali Hotel Association, Anup Thakur, said industry ascended from October onwards but took a plunge with the spike in Covid-19 cases.
He said the occupancy in Manali hotels was down to 15%.
The income of travel agents, tour guides and taxi drivers and others has also been wiped out. Many travel agencies have shut their businesses and sacked their employees.
Meltdown of such magnitude has never hit the industry in the past. While the hotels were closed in March last year, our business was shut much earlier, said Viren Kumar, who runs a travel agency in Kangra district.
“We are getting negligible bookings. Flight bookings have almost stopped. There are no tour packages,” he added.
“The business revived a bit early this year but things have again returned to square one due to surge in Covid-19 infections,” he said.
As per the state economic survey, tourism was the hardest hit sector by the pandemic. It saw a contraction of 81.33% in foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in 2020. Trade, hotel and restaurant sectors showed a contraction of 9.2% during 2020-21 as against a growth of 4.6% in 2019-20.
