SHIMLA: The hoteliers of Himachal Pradesh expect a resurgence in footfalls of Gujarati tourists for the coming Navratra tourist season starting from October.
The hoteliers have urged the state government to resolve the issue of entry of tourist vehicles from Gujarat in the capital city between the hoteliers and police and district administration before the arrivals begin.
The police had stopped the tourist vehicles outside the city that had led to boycott of Himachal Pradesh by the tourist operators from Gujarat and Maharashtra few months ago that, in turn, had hit the tourism industry badly, said the hoteliers.
This issue among other things had cropped up at the three days long tourism trade fair that started at Ahmadabad today.
As many as 165 hoteliers from Himachal are participating in this trade fair.
The hoteliers have hired stalls to exhibit their properties. The hoteliers get opportunity to interact directly with the travel agents of Gujarat who came from all major cities of the state.
Since Gujarat has Navratri holidays from mid-October, tourists from Gujarat start making beeline for Himachal before festival of Diwali.
The travellers from Gujarat play a big role in generating sizeable occupancy in the hotels from mid-October till March.
Apart from Navratri holiday seekers, honeymoon couples also throng Himachal.
“Tourism Trade fair is the best platform for hoteliers to show case their properties”, said the hoteliers. They have a direct interaction with the travel agents.
Travel agents also go stall to stall to gather the latest information about hotels.
President, Federation of Himachal Hotel and Restaurants associations (FOHHRA) Mr. Gajinder Thakur welcomed the decision of the government for subsidising the air fair for flights operating between Kullu-Shimla and Shimla- Kangra as it will rope in quality tourists.
Thakur said there is a need to have wide publicity of air connectivity available for Shimla, Kullu and Kangra airports .
“The hoteliers hope they will get good business from Gujarat where tourists prefer to come in big groups”.
The large number of tourists from Gujurat prefer to come in groups. The government needs to ensure that the buses /tempo travellers of groups are not stopped outside the Shimla, Thakur said.
“Gujarat and Maharashtra travel agents had boycotted Himachal for this reason only”, he cautioned.
He said the government needs to organise a meeting in a week or 10 days time to resolve this major issue with the local associations involving district administration and police . “There is a need to create tourists friendly atmosphere”.
