HP tourism industry demands special package to cope amid lockdown
The association has demanded that the relief package should cover water, electricity, sewerage cess and garbage collection fees, besides property tax and demand charges by state power board.
The tourism industry stakeholders here have demanded a special package from the state government to sustain the Covid-19 lockdown period.
Association president Mohinder Seth said that it might take at least 12 to18 months to bring the Himachal tourism industry back on the rails even after normalisation. This is because the main contributing states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, and parts of south India are badly affected due to the coronavirus crisis.
The association has demanded that the relief package should cover water, electricity, sewerage cess and garbage collection fees, besides property tax and demand charges by state power board.
Apart from this, the body has asked the government to consider liberal working capital limits, term loans and enhancement of existing limits with nominal rate of interest.
“The country-wide lockdown due to Covid-19 ahead of summer has dealt a blow to the tourism industry which is dependent on seasonal business. The sustainability of tourism units – hotels, travel agents, restaurants, taxi operators – is hanging in the balance as 100 % bookings for the coming season have been cancelled,” said Seth.
There has been a steep decline in the inflow of tourists and hotel occupancy suffered further due to online travel companies offering accommodation for as low as ₹400 to ₹500 per day. Due to this, the hotel industry had to fill the gap of operational costs of their units either by raising loans or by liquidating their deposits. More than 95% of tourism units in the state are small and medium enterprises. These units hardly have any cash reserves to ensure payment of staff salary, electricity and water bills, taxes, loan interest, rent, insurances and repair and maintenance costs.