Tourism traders look dejected, awaiting better days
Monday, 24 JULY 2023 | PNS | NAINITAL
In latest Uttarakhand news, the incessant, torrential rains, pounding Nainital for some days and the resultant landslides and frequent road blockages, are now impacting the tourism and hotel trades adversely. According to the hotel owners, there is a sharp decline in the tourist footfall in the world-renowned lake city and its neighbouring tourist areas since the spell of heavy rain started. “Most of the tourism spots in the city looked deserted during the weekend and the rate of occupancy in the hotel rooms is very low,” said a hotel owner. Against this dismal backdrop, all the big and small tourism traders are now looking gloomy. The boat association president Ramsingh Bisht said that the tourists are seldom coming now, given the non-stop rain and this is affecting their trade gravely.
The renowned tourists places which usually buzz with tourists and tourism-related activities on weekends are now deserted as the tourists are steering clear of these places fearing landslides and road blockages in the wake of relentless rain lashing the hills, said a hotel owner, adding that there is hardly 20 per cent occupancy in his hotel at present.
Echoing the same, the president of the president of the hotel association of Nainital, Digvijay Bisht said that due to the rain and rain-related disasters occurring in the hills, the tourists have been shunning Nainital and its neighbouring tourism places and this has been badly impacting their business. “While the tourists would desperately look for rooms in the hotels before the rain-spell started, the same hotels are now reeling under low occupancy,” he added.
Notably, the zoo is the first choice of the tourists visiting Nainital where over one thousand tourists would normally visit any given day but after the start of the rain-spell, the number has dwindled drastically. The same is the case with the Botanical Garden where just 63 tourists have visited it. In all, 301 tourists have visited the waterfall while 498 tourists have enjoyed the ropeway ride in the city.
