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Uttarakhand hotels to remain shut, hoteliers say govt guidelines impractical
Under the government’s new guidelines, hotels cannot accept bookings from guests from high-load Covid-19 cities which include Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata from where large volumes of tourists visit Uttarakhand.
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Hoteliers in Uttrakhand have decided to keep their hotels shut saying the government’s guidelines were impractical for their business.
The Uttarakhand government has allowed hotels and homestays in the state to open from Monday with fresh guidelines in Unlock 1.
Under the new guidelines issued on Sunday, hotels cannot accept bookings from guests from high-load Covid-19 cities which include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Noida and others.
It has also prohibited the guests from visiting the tourist spots and public places along with a minimum stay of seven days in the hotels.
The hotel associations of popular tourist towns like Mussoorie and Nainital have termed the guidelines as impractical and have decided to keep their hotels closed.
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Dinesh Shah, president of Nainital Hotel Association under which there are about 120 hotels said, “Though the government has allowed us to resume our operations but has put conditions which if followed will be difficult for our business. Hence, we have decided to keep the hotels closed.”
Shah while pointing out the conditions said, “The government has prohibited us from taking bookings of guests from high-load Covid-19 cities among which there are those from which we get our maximum business. Also, people come here to visit the tourist spots from distant places but now why would they come if they won’t be allowed to visit those spots? They are not fools to come here and quarantine themselves for seven days inside the hotel.”
“We have already suffered losses during our peak business months of April and May. We will only open when it will be favourable for us,” said Shah adding “The government has also not released the hotels which it has taken as quarantine centres.”
RN Mathur, president of Mussoorie hotel association which has about 200 hotels under it, gave similar reasons and said they will also not open their hotels.
“Mussoorie is a place where tourists stay in hotels for a maximum one of two days. But the guidelines say that they have to stay for seven days. Why would he stay for such a long period?,” said Mathur.
“We will keep our hotels closed for the next 10 days till we take some decision,” he said.
