Check-out spree in Gangtok hotels

April 24: More than 1,000 tourists, half the usual number, left Gangtok today during the 12-hour bandh relaxation in neighbouring north Bengal.

Hotel owners complained that a check-out spree has hit the Sikkim capital, already reeling from the effects of last year’s earthquake and the drinking water scarcity early this month.

Sikkim, which is landlocked, is accessible only by road through Bengal. Any bandh or shutdown in north Bengal, which includes the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars, cuts off the Himalayan state from the rest of the country — a grouse that has often been conveyed to the Centre by the Sikkim government. Although NH31A, the only road leading out of Sikkim, has not been shut down, most tourists feared that blockades could be set up on the highway like the one on Hill Cart Road yesterday.

In Darjeeling, however, there were no major cancellations of bookings, the Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents said.

Tourist destinations in the Dooars like Lataguri, Gorumara and Dhupjhora started emptying out since the morning.

“Tourists have been thronging the taxi stand in Gangtok since morning. All vehicles plying to Siliguri are packed with tourists. We are getting numerous queries on taxi bookings,” said Ramesh Subba, a booking staff member at the taxi stand in Gangtok’s Deorali. “More than 100 vehicles have left for Siliguri. Each vehicle accommodates 10 passengers, so around 1000 tourists have left Gangtok so far,” said Subba around 3pm. That is when the last taxi leaves Gangtok. An industry sources said usually 400-500 tourists come down from Sikkim daily at this time of the year.

Nanda Ghosh and his family (of five), who had come from Calcutta’s Thakurpukur were among those eager to leave Gangtok. “We had come two days back for a weeklong package tour. We hardly saw any places in Sikkim when the news of bandh was published in newspapers. Since there is a relaxation of 12 hours, we are heading back to Calcutta. We don’t want to be stuck or harassed on the way,” Ghosh said. He was referring to the blockade set by the bandh enforcers led by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Hill Cart Road yesterday. Tourists had to trudge almost a kilometre on foot with their baggage to cross the blockade.

Partha Sen reached the taxi stand at 5am only to find that all vehicles had been booked. “I had come here (taxi stand) in the wee hours so that I could catch the first vehicle to Siliguri but almost all taxis were booked. So I took a ticket of a taxi which is on the way to Gangtok from Siliguri,” he said. The taxi was expected here around 11am.

As soon as the news of bandh relaxation spread, there was a scramble to check out of hotels, whether in the Dooars or in Sikkim.

“The occupancy is zero now. The tourists who had checked in a day back also cancelled their bookings and left the hotel as news of the bandh relaxation trickled in,” said Rajen Chettri, the owner of a hotel in Gangtok with 20 double bed rooms.

Many tour operators said bookings to Changu Lake and Nathu-la, the main attractions of East Sikkim, were scrapped.

The secretary of the Lataguri Resort Owners’ Association, Kamal Bhowmick, said: “There are 38 private lodges in Lataguri and all of them are empty from the morning. These lodge owners have suffered a loss of Rs 5 lakh in just one day,” Bhowmick said.

Sikkim, which had been recovering from the earthquake that had scared away tourists, is now having to face the consequences of trouble in a neighbouring state because of its landlocked topography that makes it accessible only through Bengal.

“The tourism business was recovering gradually after the earthquake but again the political disturbances in Bengal have hit the sector badly. Around 30-40 per cent of the people of Sikkim are dependent on the tourism industry for their livelihood,” said Bhanu Pratap Rasaily, the president of Sikkim Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association. “Around 300 hotels in Sikkim are affiliated to the association and most of them are without tourists,” he said.

Lukendra Rasaily, the president of the Travel Agents’ Association of Sikkim, said in a circumstance like this, the tourism industry in the state suffers a loss of Rs 80 lakh a day. “A budget tourist in Gangtok spends nearly Rs 2,000 a day on an average. Sikkim gets around 4,000 tourists during the month of April which indicates a loss of Rs 80 lakh in a day,” he said.

Earlier this month, taps in Gangtok ran dry as lines supplying water from the only source were crushed by a landslide. Many tourists then had checked out of the hotels. It was three days before the water supply was normalised.

According to the data provided by the tourism department, 33,421 domestic tourists visited Sikkim this March, a sharp drop in the arrivals from the 62,438 people who came last year. “Sixty per cent of the domestic tourists to Sikkim are from Bengal,” a tourism official said.

“There has been a decrease of 30 per cent in tourist footfall this year. Although the season has just begun we are expecting to have more tourists in the next two months,” said tourism secretary R Telang. The official said he had considered the figures from January to April, though he could not divulge the numbers for this month.

The peak tourism season in Sikkim lasts from April to June. It picks up again in September and extends till November.

“I had spoken to the additional district magistrate of Darjeeling who is currently stationed in Siliguri to ensure that vehicles from Sikkim are not disrupted along the national highway. So far, no incident of stopping vehicles has been reported,” said district collector (East Sikkim) D Anandan.(TT)