Tamang death takes toll on hill tourism

Siliguri, May 21: The murder of the ABGL chief has sent tourists scurrying downhill and shivers down the stakeholders of the tourism industry who fear that the season has died an early death.

“We have no clue as to what we should do. The news has prompted our counterparts and clients from different locations to call us and cancel (their bookings),” said Samrat Sanyal, the general secretary of the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association.

“Tourists who are in Darjeeling and Sikkim panicked the most and have been continuously calling us. We have no option but to tell them that we ready with all back-up but the decision would have to be their own. In case they want to cancel their bookings, we are ready to refund the money. Now that the news has been flashed in the national media, we wonder what the tourist inflow will be during the next few months,” he said.

After the two-day strike by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on May 15 and 16, tourists, who had bookings in Darjeeling, had started trickling back into the hills. “We were worried about the cancellations for June, when the Morcha has called a 10-day strike,” Sanyal said.

“But after today’s incident, each stakeholder is in a state of utter confusion. There is no formal strike but tension prevails in Darjeeling and other hill towns forcing the tourists to come down. But if any strike is called or the situation deteriorates further, the tourists may find themselves in problem. It seems the season has ended,” added Sanyal

While hundreds of tourists rushed down from the hills today, others on way to the hills either stayed back in Siliguri or left for the Dooars.

“As the news spread, tourists started enquiring about accommodations in the Dooars and are moving out there,” said Raj Basu, the association president. “How can we tell tourists, who are spending so much, to cut short their trip and go back. The season is dead.”

Mrinmoy Karmakar, who has come with a five-member group from Kasba in Calcutta, preferred not to move to the hills. “We learnt about the incident and stayed back in Siliguri. The driver also suggested that it is better not to go to Darjeeling today,” Karmakar said.

The tour operators recalled Tamang who as a stakeholder of the industry used to offer accommodation to the tourists at his Darjeeling house and also at his ancestral home at Meghma on the Indo-Nepal border near Manebhanjan.

“His house at Meghma was very popular with trekkers on the Sandakphu-Phalut route,” Basu said. “In Darjeeling, many people used to stay in his place. He used to entertain them with historical and interesting stories of the hills. We mourn his death as he often used to speak of a comprehensive plan to develop the Darjeeling tourism circuit.”

Source: The Telegraph