SHIMLA: As the tourism industry is still reeling under stress in the post-Covid pandemic period, Federation of Himachal Hotel and Restaurant association (FHHRA) has urged the Sukhu Government to Revisit the Himachal Bar License Policy in the state.
The hoteliers raised various issues related to hotel industry at meeting of the federation held here on Wednesday.
The Bar facility in the hotels and restaurants has become unviable due to heavy bar license fee and above that there is a compulsion of lifting minimum quota of liquor irrespective of the sale of liquor in the Bar.
General secretary FHHRA MK Seth said the hotels have limited clientele and the profitability of the bar totally depends on the guests staying in the hotels.
Moreover there is complete ban on drink and drive in the larger interest of safety of General public. Due to to this the local clients are rarely coming to use hotel bars, federation claimed.
The hotel industry in Himachal is seasonal.
Mr. Gajendra Thakur said there is a need to decrease the Bar license fee and do away with the condition of lifting of minimum quota of liquor for hotels having Bar facility.
There is also need to create different categories of Bar license. The bar license fees for hotels located in the rural areas needs to be reduced to nominal, the members demand.
The beer bar license should also be very nominal .The bar licenses should be issued on season basis also. The condition of lifting of minimum quota needs to be abolished all together, the members demand.
The second matter of renewal of Tourism license for Hotel, Restaurants and other tourism units was discussed in the meeting.
It was unanimously resolved that the Tourism licenses should be renewed after every five years, instead of presently three years. The other licenses like FSSAI, Labour, pollution consent are already renewed after every five years.
The tourism industry is under stress and is trying to revive after COVID pandemic.
The tourism is the worst-hit sector. There is a need to reduce participation charges for tourism Fairs and travel marts organised in different part of the country, federation demand.
It was felt that the participation fee for these fairs needs to be reduced for all tourism units.
The present charges of one stall is Rs 30000 it needs to be reduced to Rs.10000 for at least for two years to facilitate the hotel industry to promote their business .
The youth participants from tourism industry should be charged only Rs.5000 as incentive to encourage them.
The association's should get free space to promote their destination by displaying tourist information of each destination.
The association will submit suggestions to the government very shortly so as to budget provision can me made in the coming Budget, Seth said.
