While the travel and tourism industry around the world is demanding a relaxation of restrictions on tourism activities, Tourism Industry people in Himachal are in favor to ban tourism activities till September.
All Himachal Association of Hospitality & Tourism, an umbrella organization of trade associations in the state, has written a letter to the Chief Minister asking complete lockdown on all tourism activities so they can check the spread of the pandemic in the hill state through the visitors.
“Due to the Corona pandemic in India and worldwide, the tourism and hospitality sector is closed for the past three months and revenue generation is nil. We are concerned about the survival of our tourism industry, loss of revenue, our staff, and our families, but at the same time, we cannot put the health and life of our society to grave risk. We are of the opinion that for the coming few months touristic activities in HP should not be permitted,” says a letter written by Ashwani Bamba, State Spokesperson, All Himachal Associations of Hospitality and Tourism, and President, Hotel & Restaurant Association of Dharamshala.
As mentioned in the letter, The State receives lot of tourists from nearby States like Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, during the summer months and most of these states are “gravely infected and are in red zone” and therefore, “we should not invite them to visit HP and our public in the risk of Covid-19.”
As there is no vaccine available for the virus, there is a fear in the minds of the people as well, it says.
“We, therefore, suggest that touristic activities in hotels may be permitted after the rainy season is over, some time in Sep/ Oct, when the govt can make adequate arrangements for the screening and make sure that only healthy tourists enter the state, monitoring the movement of all visitors, considering the health and safety of its citizens.”
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