Kasauli hoteliers grapple with low occupancy

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 14

Cheaper air travel, preference to other destinations like Jammu and Kashmir, coupled with the fear of rain-induced fury, have affected tourist influx to Kasauli this year.

Apart from weekend tourists, hotels are not registering tourist influx during weekdays. “The tourist season ends by July 15 and it is corporate clients, who descend on Kasauli for holding official meetings. The weekends are better than the weekdays. The business picks up around the festival season in October,” said Gurpreet Singh, general manager, Kasauli Resorts.

Several hotels thrive on walk-in clients during the weekends as there are not many bookings. Some hotel owners are gaining as Kasauli is preferred for destination weddings, though a majority of hotels struggle to break even after being in operation for years.

Fear psychosis is reportedly keeping the tourists away from Kasauli and other popular destinations like Chail this year, as roads were damaged during the last monsoons. “Major roads, including the Parwanoo-Solan National Highway, had remained closed for days with shooting stones and frequent landslides increased the risk of travelling to the hills,” added Gurpreet.

Hoteliers also attribute cheaper air travel to foreign destinations as another reason behind the lack of room occupancy in Kasauli this year. “As several companies have slashed their airfares, the tourists prefer to travel abroad than coming here. The preference to holidaying abroad is being seen as another reason behind the reduced tourist inflow this time,” said Nitika, a tourist from Chandigarh who often comes to Kasauli, along with her family, during the weekend.

Though the Kasauli Planning Area was registering a steep rise in the number of hotels with at least 50 more coming up on the Dharampur-Kasauli road, a majority had failed to register optimum occupancy. This had prompted many hoteliers to lease out their properties to other firms.

The hoteliers lamented that the average stay of the tourists in the Kasauli area is two days as they don’t have much to do here. “The state government should promote this area as we pay GST worth crores every month. We also ensure that the roads are well maintained and timely repairs are carried out,” said Rocky Chimni, director, Glen View.

“A large chunk of business is lost to unregistered bed and breakfast (BnB) units and homestays that operate on online bookings and pay no taxes. Several such units could be seen right next to the hotels. These units adversely hit our business,” added Gurpreet Singh.