City hotels finding it difficult to handle tourist rush
SHILLONG: Shillong has seen a large jump in the arrival of foreign and domestic tourists over the years and of late, the limited number of hotels and guest houses in the city are finding it difficult to cater to the travelers.
With the tourist season at its peak at the moment, visitors are finding it difficult to secure accommodation in the city.
A tourist in Police Bazar, while sharing his ordeal, said that he went to as many as 10 hotels in only to find that all of them are packed to the capacity.
“I did a mistake of not booking hotel prior to my visit,” the tourist from West Bengal said.
During this time of the year, Shillong witnesses the inflow of large number of tourists especially those coming from West Bengal and Assam.
A Tourism department official said that Shillong definitely needs more hotels of all budgets.
Meanwhile, a tourist ) from Assam complained that many hotels in the city do not display tariff cards and quote random rates for the rooms. He added that all hotels also do not provide free wi fi or even a complimentary breakfast.
“The administration should step in to check such malpractices,” he said.
Meanwhile, managers of hotels and guest houses opined that people have to pre-plan their trip if they are to visit the city during Christmas as there is a huge inflow of tourists during this time.
Meghalaya, “the Abode of Clouds”, is known for its beauty and charm that attracts tourists not only from within the country but from across the globe.
As per the statistics, a whopping 7,17,789 domestic tourists and 8,664 foreign tourists visited the State last year taking the total number of tourists visiting Meghalaya to 7,26,453.
In the year 2013, 6,91,269 domestic tourists and 6,773 foreign tourists had visited the State. This was a marginal increase from the year 2012 in which 685567 tourists, 680254 domestic and 5313 foreign, had visited the State.