Weekend tourism sees a dip in HP amid second wave

The occupancy in the state’s hotels remain around 70% on normal weekends, but this time, it has dipped to 30%

Hoping for a revival after last year’s lull due to the lockdown, the tourism industry in Himachal is staring at more losses this season as the second wave of Covid-19 infections is spoiling people’s getaway plans.

A view of deserted railway station in Shimla on Saturday. (Deepak Sansta /HT)

Officials of the state-run Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) said occupancy in most of their hotels has seen a major decline over the last two weeks. “Our occupancy is nearly 40% on normal days and goes up to 70% during the weekends, but this weekend, it has dropped to around 30%,” said Ashwani Soni, general manager of HPTDC. He added that over the last year, they have incurred a loss of around ₹40 crore owing to the pandemic.

Tourism industry’s contribution to the state’s economy is around 7%. Majority of the weekend visitors to Himachal are from the neighboring states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh. Tourists from Haryana and Chandigarh prefer hill stations such as Kasuali and Chail over Shimla. But the pandemic-forced restrictions have meant that fewer tourists from Punjab are visiting the hills.

“Himachal also sees a large number of tourists from Gujarat and Maharashtra in the months of March and April, but owing to the fresh surge in cases and travel restrictions, we have hardly been getting any visitors from these two states,” said Mohinder Seth, a Shimla-based hotelier and president of the Tourism Industry Stakeholders Association.

Seth added, “The increased tourist flow in winter months had given us some hope but now, we are back to square one.” He further said that the industry received no help from the government and hoteliers are reeling under the burden of heavy bills in the form of water charges and property tax. “If the government does not extend us timely help, the industry will crumble,” said Seth.

Vijay Inder Karan, a Dharamshala-based hotelier, said the occupancy which had reached 40-50% in December has again come down below 10%. “There are no advance bookings. We only get walk-in tourists,” said Karan.

After the peak tourists’ season of December and mid-January, it is the Chaitra Navratri festival that attracts a stream of domestic holidaymakers from West Bengal and Maharashtra to the hill states in March and April. Foreigners start descending by June-mid for adventure tourism with the opening of high mountain passes after winter snowfall.

In the fiscal year 2020-2021, a total of 32, 13, 379 tourists visited the hills, which comprised 31, 70, 714 domestic and 42, 665 foreigners. In 2019-2020, the number stood at 1, 72, 12, 107, of which 1, 68, 29, 231 were domestic travelers and 3,82, 876 foreigners.