HP gears up for autumn tourist rush

With the autumn festival season barely days away, many hotels across Himachal Pradesh are reporting advance bookings by tourists.

Tourists from West Bengal, Gujarat and the northern Indian states head in large numbers to resorts in the hill state during the Navratri and Dussehra holidays.

"Over half the accommodations in our hotels in popular destinations like Shimla, Manali, Dharamsala have already been booked," said RC Gupta, a senior official of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC).

"We have also made special arrangements for vegetarian and fruit meals for those fasting during the Navratri festival," said Gupta.

With over 50 properties, HPTDC hotels are situated in some of the most scenic locations of the state, some of the properties are heritage buildings, which is an added attraction. Earlier this year HPTDC started online bookings.

The private hotels, which bag the bulk of the tourist traffic, are also gearing for the upcoming festival season. Many of the large hotels are reporting advance bookings in large numbers through travel agents.

"The autumn festival season definitely attracts a huge number of visitors and so we are all set to receive customers in large numbers after the lean monsoon season," said Rajiv Madan, general manager of the Shimla Hotel and Restaurants Association.

Officials of the state tourism department say, until the end of last month, some 5 million domestic and 145,000 foreign tourists had visited the state, which is higher than last year's figures.

Officials have warned hotels not to charge customers more than the fixed tariffs, especially during the peak festival season when the resorts in the hill state are flooded by tourists.