The Northern India experienced a record breaking cold wave this season. The intense cold has broken the record temperature of last many years, especially Delhi which recently recorded the lowest temperature in the past 119 years, impacting the tourism in major parts of North India.
Dr D K Aggarwal, President PHD Chamber, said in press statement that at this time of the year when all sectors of the economy have been significantly affected due to the slowdown, including the tourism sector, such extreme weather conditions of cold wave leading to dense fog, cancellation and delayas in fights and trains has severely impacted the tourism in major parts of North India.
As Delhi is the connecting hub to almost all the hill stations of North India the severe cold wave and extreme weather conditions has adversely impacted the connectivity of tourists to major tourist destinations of like Mussoorie, Manali, Shimla, Kullu among others said Dr D K Aggarwal.
During December, with schools closed for the winter break citizens from most part of the country like to visit the HImalayan regions to view the snow cladd peaks and witness snowfall.
Most of the Hill Stations of North India thrive and sustain on tourism, as earning from different tourist activities, including sight – seeing activities, hotels for boarding and lodging, restaurant and eateries, transport facilities, among others are the major source of these states income, said Dr D K Aggarwal.
A large part of the population in these states are dependent on incomes from various forms of tourism, during the high tourist season from December to January (Winter Holidays & New Years) and April to July (Summer Holidays in most part of India).
The member of the households prepare during the rest of the year for these few months of high tourism to make a living and hence they get significantly impacted incase of low tourist footfall in these Northern India states and hill stations during the tourist season, added Dr Aggarwal.
This year’s record breaking winter in Delhi accompanied by a thick blanket of fog which caused extremely low visibility, has severely affected the residents of the city and tourism of Delhi and its connecting Northern states, said Dr Aggarwal.
Famous tourist destinations of Manali, Kufri, Dalhousie and Shimla have recorded a low of 2 degrees Celsius, 4 degrees Celsius, 4.3 degrees Celsius and 6.3 degrees Celsius, respectively in the past 15 days.
These adverse weather conditions have also forced the suspension of traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway leaving thousands of Valley-bound vehicles stranded and adversely affecting the tourism in these regions of North India. Same has been the conditions of roads and highways leading to Manali and Darjeeling too.
Some higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh received fresh snowfall like Lahaul-Spiti’s administrative centre Keylong experienced 5 cm snowfall followed by Gandhola witnessing 3 cm and Kinnaur’s Kalpa getting 1 cm in the past few days.
