Manali Tourism the Worst Hit this Year – Experts Says Rumor of Flood is the Reason

MANALI: Manali Tourism is highly affected as till July most of the hotels occupancy is just 25%. The rumors of the flood are the reason and tourists are not been able to gather courage to visit the hill station.

This is for the first time, Manali has seen such a worst in the tourism industry as by 15 August, Manali used to be jam packed and neither of the hotels used to be empty. But this year it is badly affected and there are hardly advance bookings for Diwali and Dussehra holidays.

The entire Kullu Valley is safe throughout the monsoon season; there was no flood or landslides in any part of the district. It is for the first time in so many years, the Delhi - Manali National Highways was not damaged by the landslide. Despite a favorable condition, tourists are keeping themselves away from Manali, Sources said.

The entire tourism departments of Manali are puzzled by the uncertain downfalls in the number of tourists visit. Looking at this, Manali

JUST CLICK AWAY… http://www.manalitourismpackages.com/ Hoteliers Association president, Anup Thakur said, “Rumors have destroyed the monsoon tourist season completely. Hoteliers are getting calls to know whether the situation in Manali and other areas are fine after floods and cloud brusts. We are surprised that who spread such humors to crores of people and think that Manali has been hit by recent natural calamity life cloudburst and floods.

The tourists who are not aware are still cancelling their bookings and has put the tourism industry deep in trouble, he said. “We have suffered losses in crores of rupees. We have shared our information to many of the tour operator that it is the best season in Manali, but this has now worked either, “Thakur said.

Manali used to receive heavy advance bookings, but this time the rumor has affected the season. Tourists are hesitating in advance bookings and we were also eying that tourists looking forward to tour Uttarakhand would also visit to Himachal Pradesh. But this has become the other way and has proved wrong. Only few star category hotels have 20% to 30% occupancy, a hotelier, Ram Prakash, Said.

The hill station Manali has around 1,000 hotels, resorts and guests houses and they have the capacity of 30,000 beds, which is more than that of national capital Delhi. More of the residents here depend on tourism as they are the backbone of the livelihood, while all the 196 home stays units are also waiting for tourists, sources said.

Now as the season, is affected, Manali is now waiting for winter season, where thousands of newlywed couples throng here for holidays. REFERENCE