Monday, December 19, 2022
Winter is a hunky dory time for hoteliers of hill stations to reap the benefits of high tourist footfall and Himachal Pradesh is no exception. However, this winter may turn out to be a bit of disappointment for the States’ tourism sector. This distress is being created by dry spell and warmer climate.
“Dry spell and warmer climate have not only begun affecting rabi crops, they have also cast a grim shadow on the state’s winter tourism,” a leading daily quoted Himachal Tourism Stakeholders Association president Mohinder Seth as saying.
He further added that with a high chance of affecting smaller hoteliers, the dry spell has made the walk-in tourists visiting the hilly destination anxious. “The luxury hotels have online booking up to 70% and booking may go higher if it snows on Christmas,” Seth said.
Sandeep Kumar Sharma, senior scientist at the MeT’s Shimla centre attributed the warm conditions to the absence of strong western disturbances (WD), a climate phenomenon that brings rain and snow to the western Himalayan region in winter.
The dry spell and warm winter has baffled farmers and fruit growers as well in the hill state as it has delayed the winter cycle for the owners of apple orchards. “In lower elevations drought-like conditions have been created due to dry and warm weather which will cause mortality in new plantations and especially in sunny areas canker and sunburn issues will be more prevalent. Woolly aphids, white scale canker, have started to take the epidemic form,” Progressive Growers Association president Lokinder Singh Bisht said while speaking to the leading daily.
The dry spell has resulted in warmer nights at popular tourist towns, including the state capital Shimla, Dalhousie and Kufri.
Tags: himachal pradesh
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