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Gujjars' agitation hits New Year celebration plans

Jaipur: Hotels in the desert State of Rajasthan are forced to forgo their New Year celebration plans with tourists cancelling bookings due to the ongoing Gujjar agitation and foggy weather.

The Pink City has been a preferred destination for domestic tourists to celebrate New Year. However, this time the celebration seems to be reduced to locals only, with hotels not keen on pomp and splendour on large scale to welcome 2011, unlike the previous years.

“Occupancy was around 80 per cent before the Gujjar agitation but (now) 15-20 per cent bookings are being cancelled every day while there is no hope of fresh bookings. So we hoteliers are not doing very much to welcome the New Year,” Director of Hotel Paradise Vinayak Sabu said.

According to official sources, the inflow of tourists has reduced by 60 per cent due to the agitation and foggy weather conditions.

A tour operator here said that many have changed their choice of destination from Rajasthan to somewhere else due to uncertain law and order situation while the tourists who are already in the city are suffering a lot due to blockade at several places including one between Ajmer-Jodhpur.

The Gujjars' agitation which entered its 10th day on Wednesday has disturbed normal life in parts of Rajasthan, besides blocking the Delhi-Mumbai, Jaipur-Delhi and Jaipur-Kota rail routes.

Also, several roads including National Highway-11, which is the route of the popular golden triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, have also been inaccessible by protesters.

This has thinned the tourist flow, bringing new hardship to hotels.

Preparations

Hotel Man Singh General Manager R. S. Rathore said, “We were planning a grand party like a gala dinner, dance and other events on large scale as usual, but have cut short the preparations because it seems that the number of guests will be very low in comparison to (what we used to have) every year.”

He said earlier thousands of tourists from Chandigarh, Delhi and other places used to flock to city to celebrate the New Year but the situation is not the same this year.- PTI

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