Known for its bustling tourism season in June, Uttarakhand’s Mussoorie has experienced a significant decline in hotel occupancy this year. Hoteliers report that on weekdays in June, the average occupancy rate has been merely 50%.
“June has always been a month when hotels were packed whether on weekends or on weekdays, but this June, the average occupancy on weekdays has been merely 50%,” said Sanjay Aggarwal, president of Mussoorie hotels’ association.
Another indication of tourist turnout is the number of vehicles coming to Mussoorie which sources indicate has “dipped from over 2,500 per day on weekdays in June 2022 to around 1,500 per day on weekdays this June”.
The number of tourists using charter flights to visit Goa this season is high compared to the 7,000-odd last year. But the figures are no match for the annual arrivals recorded in the pre-pandemic period between 2012 and 2013 and 2018 and 2019. Till March-end, Goa recorded 69,691 arrivals from charter flights.
Residents believe that the town has suffered owing to a host of issues this year and most importantly due to the poor condition of the Mall road and the Camel’s Back Road. “Mall road has been dug up for relaying work since February and till date it has not been completed while the Camel’s Back Road has been dug up in December,” said Shaillendra Karanwal, vice-president of Mussoorie hotels’ association.Frequent traffic jams, lack of parking spaces, shortage of water supply are the other factors that the residents believe has led to the town’s “negative publicity”.
“There is a lot of negative publicity in the social media and the message going out is that the town is in a bad shape. This has badly affected tourism,” said Jagjeet Kukreja, secretary of Mussoorie traders’ association.
Meanwhile, superintendent police (traffic), Akshay Konde, said that additional police force has been deployed on the weekends, three cranes have been deployed to tow away illegally parked vehicles and a traffic plan has been put in place. “Our effort is to ensure tourists do not face any difficulties. We have also changed some routes on Google maps so that tourists do not take congested roads,” he added. Rajendra Pal, assistant engineer at the Public Works Department, said, “The relaying work of the Mall road will be completed in 15 days.”
