Another blow to wedding business, tourism in Himachal
SHIMLA : A day after the government imposed fresh restrictions on social gatherings, around 45% to 80% weddings have been postponed or cancelled, which has dealt a blow to the wedding industry.
The government has now reduced the capacity for both indoor and outdoor guests at weddings and funerals to 50. Hotel Holiday Home manager Nand Lal Sharma says, “Banquets halls at the hotel had been booked solid until mid-May. However, we were asked to cancel 20 such events yesterday alone. People have deferred the dates.”
Ravinder Sandhu, manager, Hotel Pinewood, which is 61km from Chandigarh on the Kalka-Shimla highway, agrees, “Many people from the tricity — Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula — had booked our hotel after the Punjab government limited the number of guests at weddings. Now, they have cancelled or postponed their bookings.”
“We had booked nine weddings after April 23. However, now that the government has capped the numbers we have lost avenues to earn,” said Sanjay Madan, proprietor, East Bourne Hotel.
Shimla Hoteliers and Restaurateurs Association president Sanjay Sood said, “At a time when the pandemic-hit tourism industry was showing signs of revival, the restrictions have again dealt a blow to the hotel industry. Many hotels have lost bookings.” In Dharamshala, too, catering companies and hotels fear that they may lose business.
Vijay Inder Karan, a Dharamshala-based hotelier ,said, “We have two or three wedding bookings. We have asked them to strictly adhere to the guest limit of 50 people.”
Surge in cases and the slew of restrictions being announced one after the other have brought the tourism industry to a grinding halt in Himachal. The government had issued an advisory for tourists from heavy caseloads states asking them to bring negative Covid reports not older than 72 hours with them.
“The financial health of the tourism industry and its stakeholders is already in a bad shape due to complete closure of tourism units for seven to eight months last year. The industry was slowly heading towards revival due to free-flow of tourists,” said MK Seth, president, Himachal Pradesh Tourism Stake holder Association .
“The stakeholders were at least generating some revenue to meet their expenses. However, the second wave has broken the back bone of tourism industry in Himachal,” he said adding that the state receives most tourists between March and mid-July, and that too from Gujrat and Maharashtra, and West Bengal. The weekend crowd also mostly comprises visitors from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand. Similarly, taxi operators are also finding it difficult to make ends meet. “I purchased a new car after raising a loan from the bank two years ago, but lockdown was imposed last year and prospects of earning seem bleak this year too. I have no option but to sell the car,” says Ravinder Kumar , 25, a taxi operator .