Darjeeling still hot pick for tourists - Strife fails to stop traveller flow

Darjeeling, June 6: Brand Darjeeling continues to shine in the tourism sector despite crumpling infrastructure and an air of uncertainty.

In May, Darjeeling witnessed a sudden spurt in the number of travellers desperate to beat the sweltering summers in the Indian plains.

In fact, getting a hotel accommodation for flying tourists — those who do not have prior bookings — had become a tall order and so were booking taxis in town.

Pradip Lama, the secretary of the Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents (DATA), said: “Even though there are no figures with us to show the number of tourists who came to Darjeeling, we can safely say the inflow in May was of the highest in recent years.”

People associated with the tourism sector in the hill town say four lakh tourists used to visit Darjeeling every year before the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha revived the agitation for the separate state in 2008. “We used to get around 3.5 lakh domestic tourists and 25,000 to 30,000 foreigners every year,” said Suresh Periwal, the chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (Darjeeling-Sikkim chapter).

Almost 60 per cent of the tourists would visit the hills during the March-June period, while the rest would come after the Durga Puja.

“This has definitely been a record season for us. Almost 500 vehicles visit Tiger Hill every day and many tourists could not reach the hilltop to see the sunrise and had to be satisfied seeing the sunrise from a much lower altitude,” said Lama.

Tourism had taken a beating after June 2008 when the Morcha had called a flash strike and asked the tourists to vacate the hill town within 24 hours.

The tour operators had kept their fingers crossed even early this year. “People generally firm up their travel plans about three months in advance. This year, there was an indefinite strike in the hills in February and we were apprehensive,” said a tour operator who did not want to be named.

However, the rush that was witnessed in May belied all apprehensions.

Sources in the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park said the daily number of tourists who visited the facility recently was almost 3,000. “The number has gone down in the past couple of days, but it has been a good season this year,” said a source in the park.

The tourism stakeholders, however, refuse to give any credit to the state government for the high tourist footfall.

“The government has done nothing. We basically convinced our counterparts in the rest of the country and even in Calcutta that the situation looked positive. We also took a risk to accept bookings and it has worked well,” said Lama.

The hills have nothing to boast about as far as infrastructure is concerned. Roads are crumpling and tourist spots like Rock Garden and Gangamaya Park, which were huge draws, have not yet been repaired after the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila. The Shrubbery Nightangle Park was opened only this month after the revival.

“Most of the tourists are visiting Darjeeling to escape the summer heat,” said Periwal. The average temperate has not gone beyond 25 degrees Celsius this year.

Many tour operators say the model code of conduct imposed before the Assembly elections helped create a semblance of peace in the hills.

“Even the political parties have acted responsibly this time. Even though they (Morcha) called a general strike in May, transport was kept out of the bandh’s purview and this helped a lot in boosting the confidence of the tourism sector,” said a travel agent in Darjeeling. 

...TT