As Kangra celebrates World Tourism Day, dip in tourist footfall worries stakeholders
World Tourism Day was celebrated in various parts of Kangra district today. The Kangra Valley Carnival being organised by the Tourism Department in Dharamsala from tomorrow will end on October 13. However, a dip in tourist footfall in the Kangra valley is worrying people associated with the tourism industry.
The state government has planned to make Kangra the tourism capital of the state but vital infrastructure that can boost tourism in the district is not yet available. The expansion of the Gaggal airport in Kangra district is a major infrastructure project on which the tourism industry of the region is pinning hopes for the revival of business. The Congress government has kept a budget of Rs 2,000 crore for the expansion of the Gaggal airport in 2022-23. The government has issued the notification for the acquisition of land for the airport expansion but the disbursement of compensation to people, whose land is being acquired, has not yet begun.
Sources said that only after the state government acquired the land and handed it over to the Airports Authority of India that the work on the project could start.
The zoological park proposed by the present government in Dehra of Kangra is another big infrastructure project for the district. The park is expected to be a tourist destination. The construction of its boundary wall has started.
The Congress government has proposed to build a tourism village on 112 hectares taken from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur. The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered a stay on the transfer of the university land for the project.
The work on the Pathankot-Mandi highway four-lane project was stuck in the Jassur area of Kangra as the contract of the executing company has been cancelled, sources told The Tribune. The work on the Matour-Shimla highway four-lane project was under progress while the work on the Matour-Ranital highway stretch was expected to be completed by March next year.
The work on the international convention centre proposed to be built in the Zorawar stadium in Dharamsala was also yet to start.
The tourism industry provides direct and indirect employment to about one lakh people in Kangra district. Ashwani Bamba, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kangra, said that the tourist footfall in the region had reduced since the Covid breakout. He added that the arrival of foreign tourists, especially from Europe, in the region had dropped due to the wars in Israel and between Ukraine and Russia.
He said, “Domestic tourists are heading to Jammu and Kashmir instead of coming to Himachal. We hope that tourists will return to the region after the expansion of the Gaggal airport.”
RS Bali, chairman of the HPTDC, said that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was committed to developing Kangra as the tourism capital of the state. “Most of the major infrastructure projects in the state are likely to take ground in near future. Due to the efforts of the present government, a record number of tourists have visited the state in July last year,” he claimed.
