Source::RSS
RSS
TAPLEJUNG
Hotelier Pasang Chhamjok Sherpa, who has been serving domestic and foreign tourists for the past year, has been on leave since last April. He had been waiting for the tourists by collecting the necessary food and other necessities for the tourists last April.
"Apart from four locals and foreigners, no tourists have come to our hotel this season. We have packed our belongings at the hotel in Chaitra and spent the day in leisure time when the tourists did not come," he said. There are seven hotels in Ghunsa, the gateway to Kanchenjunga. All the hotels packed the necessary items in Chaitra and got ready to serve the tourists. But this year the hotels look deserted due to the lack of tourist arrivals due to the corona infection.
Hotels, which is always crowded with tourists every year, seems to be full of food and other items brought in Chaitra. Not only the slums but also the lower settlements like Phale, Gabla, Amjilesa, Sekhathum and other hotels look deserted. Tansi Tenzing of Ghunsa informed that only 12 foreign tourists have visited this season. "Every year, five to six hundred foreign tourists used to come here. In both the seasons, the hotels here were full and there was a good income, but this season only 12 foreign tourists and sporadic domestic tourists came," he said.
Hotels have been opened in various settlements along with the Kanchenjunga trial with huge investment. Local hotels and shops, which are fed up with potato farming, have been focusing on running their businesses due to the recent decline in animal husbandry and production due to wildlife attacks and scarcity. However, locals say that the source of income has been blocked this year due to the transition. "Not only hoteliers but also the overall income of the people here have declined due to non-arrival of tourists. Moreover, potato production has not been good this year. It has led to an economic recession," said Tenzing Sherpa.
The locals said that there was a problem in repaying the loan for the goods taken from Sahu when the business came to a standstill. Hoteliers said that even though they used to take the necessary goods from the district headquarters and other places before the start of the season and pay the at the end of the season, there is a problem as the food and other items stored this year are still the same. Due to the corona infection, the wood was started from Chaitra. As the tourist season starts from Chaitra to Jeth, some people had already packed their bags before Chaitra. There are more than a dozen hotels from Sekhathum to Ghunsa on the Kanchenjunga trial. On the other hand, hotels including Khambachen and Lonakal, which are on the trial, are deserted this year.
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