Heritage hotels suffer as tourists shun Gujarat

Occupancy rate of heritage hotels falls below 10%

Low tourist inflow in the state has hit the heritage hotels hard. Occupancy of heritage hotels has fallen below 10 per cent. Not only has this affected the profitability of majority of players in the market, it has also put a big question marks on their future.

In a bid to stem the rot, the Gujarat Heritage Hotels Association has given a proposal to the state government to revive the industry. Deriving points from the heritage hotel tourism policies of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the association has asked the government to implement to make the ventures more profitable.

"The occupancy of heritage hotels in Gujarat is less than 10 per cent, mainly because the foreign tourists are not coming to Gujarat. While the government still needs to do a lot more to promote tourism and thus tourist inflow, it must also provide tax sops to heritage structures. I have been to different parts of the world, and agencies across the world say they do not even have brochures of heritage hotels in Gujarat," said Yuvraj Digvijaysinh, president of the Gujarat Heritage Hotel Association.

Owner of the Royal Residency and Royal Oasis, the heritage hotels at Wankaner, Digvijaysinh said that his two hotels suffered heavy damages in the earthquake. While he restored one of the hotels, Royal Oasis, the other will take a few more months to restore.

"I have not been able to get back even a part of the money that I have spent in restoring the hotels. A lot of effort and energy go into restoring a property of this kind," said Digvijaysinh.

An official of the Balaram Palace, another heritage hotel located in the state, said that while it is true that occupancy in heritage hotels is below 10 per cent, it is 30 per cent in the case of Balaram palace during the peak season.

"We have been trying to explain to the government that heritage hotels will have to shut shop if there are no tourists. With bad infrastructure facilities, tourists are just not coming into Gujarat in the numbers that they should," he said.

The official added that it is not that heritage hotels have exorbitant rates. "These are like budget hotels, price is not the factor. It is just that foreign tourists find heritage structures more interesting than domestic tourists," he said.

Abhay Mangaldas of the House of M G, a heritage hotel in Ahmedabad city, said that being city, the hotel does not face problems of low occupancy like those in faroff places, but the heritage hotels in Gujarat do face problems.

"On one hand, those who invest into heritage tourism are never sure whether they will get ant return on investment, as tourist inflow is low. On the other hand, tourists once visiting the a heritage hotel might not come back again, as besides the structure itself, there is hardly anything more on offer," said Mangaldas.

There are twelve heritage hotels in Gujarat of which two are in Wankaner, one each at Bhavnagar, Gondal, Palitana, Rajpipla, Chhote Udepur, Poshina, Balaram, Daanta and Sayla.

According to guidelines laid down by the Union ministry of tourism about a decade ago, a heritage hotel must be at least 60 to 70 years old, must be significantly important, only 20 per cent of the building must be newly built and it should have been lived in by the family that owns the structure.

Classified into three categories - grand, medium and ordinary, the concept of heritage hotels was first tapped in Jammu and Kashmir, after which Rajasthan developed heritage hotels on a rather large scale.

Although there are several 'havelis' and other structures owned by royal families that can be converted into heritage hotels in Gujarat, the concept has not met with much success. Almost all the 12 heritage hotels have been set up in the past decade or so, and are not doing great business, mainly because the flow of tourists in the state in far below expectations.