Tourism hit in Kangra, hotel occupancy down to 30 per cent

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, September 2

Continual rainfall have adversely affected the tourism industry of the Kangra valley. Hotels here are registering only 20-30 per cent occupancy. Even the HPTDC hotels could not do good business in July and August this year.

Most of the hotels at McLeodganj, Dharamsala, Palampur, Bir and other places in the Kangra valley, which registered up to 60 per cent occupancy in these months during the previous years, could not get even 25 per cent bookings this year.

Local hotelier Vinay Sharma said they did not expect a better inflow of tourists as the Met Department had predicted heavy rain in September as well. The weekend tourism had also been adversely affected.

Bad weather has also affected air connectivity to the Kangra valley. Only a few flights are operating between Delhi and Gaggal these days. In the peak tourist season, seven daily flights operated between Delhi and Gaggal, besides Gaggal-Shimla and Gaggal-Chandigarh flights.