Himachal floods: 'Tourists have canceled advance bookings for next 3 months,' says hotelier 
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Himachal floods: 'Tourists have canceled advance bookings for next 3 months,' says hotelier The heavy rainfall and floods have given another jolt to the tourism business in Himachal Pradesh, which was looking to recover from the debilitating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A hotelier spoke to ANI on how the rainfall adversely affected the tourism business and how they are witnessing drastic drop in tourist influx.
“There is 100% loss to the tourism business, I run hotels in Shimla, Kasauli, and Manali. In most places, there is no road connectivity due to floods and rain. Those tourists are in a state of fear. This is another jolt to our tourism business after Covid; we were just trying to revive the tourism business and this rain and flood has hit us back. The tourists have cancelled the advance bookings which they had done for the next three months in the state. We don’t have even a single hotel room occupied these days,” said Rajinder Singh Thakur, a hotelier.
Owing to torrential rainfall in the state, 91 people have lost their lives from June 24 to July 13, according to an official statement.
"91 people lost their lives in Himachal Pradesh from June 24 to July 13. 34 deaths happened due to landslides, cloudburst, and flash floods," the government officials' data stated. Furthermore, over 1,000 roads in the state are still closed, and more than 5,000 water supply schemes have been damaged.
People have been facing various problems like shortage of water and more. The municipal corporation is taking all necessary steps to provide timely aid, officials told ANI.
A tourist from Maharashtra told ANI that he felt fortunate after the Shrikhand Mahadev yatra was halted.
"We had gone on the pilgrimage to Shrikhand Mahadev and we were lucky to be there as the yatra was halted right after we arrived...some people were stranded and some of them also died...it was heavily raining, roads were washed away and the administration was undertaking every measure to rescue people," said Tushar.
Another tourist said people should "plan only after following a weather forecast or should not come in the rainy season".
“It was a bit scary. We were stuck in Lahaul-Spiti for four days, for the future I would recommend everyone to come up with a plan only after following a weather forecast or should not come in the rainy season. We are feeling happy as we will be going home. I would also tell everyone in such a situation to just only try to move out safely and leave everything as life is precious,” said Kartik, a tourist from Pune.
A senior Himachal state government official has acknowledged that the rainfall has "completely damaged our infrastructure and the entire tourism industry has been badly hit".
“There has been a major loss to the tourism industry after the rain and floods. It has completely damaged our infrastructure and the entire tourism industry has been badly hit. We shall have to plan a roadmap for the restoration of roads and infrastructure. The chief minister has made it clear that our priority would be to improve conditions and restore tourist destinations. We believe that things will be normal,” said Naresh Chauhan, Principal Media Advisor to the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.
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