Tourist footfall in Himachal Pradesh has declined dramatically compared to pre-Covid years, despite an inflow of people over the weekends, due to the failure of the state to publicise its lesser-known destinations and thus tourists are flocking to more appealing places in Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
The tourist sector in Himachal Pradesh, which is the state’s economic backbone and a source of income for thousands of young people, offers a bleak image. Only on weekends do the state’s hill stations see a surge of visitors. The number of weekend visitors from Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh is higher.
According to tourist experts, hotel occupancy in the state capital Shimla dropped by 60-70 percent in April compared to the same month in previous years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mohinder Seth, president of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Industry Stakeholder Association said, ‘The hotel industry is already facing financial hardships for the last three years due to the pandemic. This year, the hotel industry was hoping for good business but low occupancy has left the hoteliers worried’.
The failure to publicise Himachal Pradesh’s lesser-known sites is the main reason for the decline in tourist arrivals. ‘There are several beautiful landscapes in and around Shimla town but tourists are unaware of these places due to lack of publicity’, said Suresh Dogra, tour and travel operator in Shimla.
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Apart from that, Himachal has become a stopover point for visitors heading north, and their stay in the state has gotten shorter. Other hill stations, such as Manali, Dharamshala, and Dalhousie, are in a similar condition.
Another aspect that contributed to this problem is that tourist buses from Gujarat and Maharashtra had difficulty entering the state and preferred to travel to neighbouring states. Tourists from neighbouring states also had a difficult time over the New Year season owing to traffic congestion, which is currently affecting weekend tourism in the state.
Tourist arrivals from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal have also dropped dramatically this year. Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand are becoming preferred destinations for tourists from these states.
The hospitality industry, which is the biggest industry in the state, has urged that tourism stakeholders and the department of tourism work together to develop a solution that would allow tourists to stay in Himachal for extended periods of time.
‘We request the tourism department to publicise places of interest around each tourist destination of Himachal to increase the stay of tourists’, said Sanjay Sood, president of Shimla hoteliers and restaurateurs association.
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