Sunday, March 04, 2007

Naini Taal v/s other Popular Hill Stations.

I got a chance to visit NainiTaal and Manali during the last fortnight of 2006. after coming Back, I could not hold myself back from recountimg my experiences of the two trips. It was my third or fourth time in Manali and Manali was as easy going and approachable, as always. The attitude of the Hotel Walahs the local populace is somewhat tolerable. At least they are ready to talk to the budget travellers but NainiTaal, the hotelwallahs are not ready to talk and buzz. My god, not a good sign for the tourism industry in a country like India where a majority of the travellers are back-packers. I shared this experience with a few others some were of the opinion that its only the rates of the Hotels that are on higher side as compared to some other popular hillstations (discovered by the Britishers), but others were of the view that the hotel lobby in NainiTaal want to mantain the tag of the somewhat superior status of Nainitaal. The hoteliers are not ready to let the rooms for less than what they quote once. They say that a certain class of the tourists will always return to NainiTaal year after years, this strata of tourists often comes from high paying capacity class. It is also my personal experience that generally budget class tourists go to Nainitaal area with keys of some cottages or flats of their friends or acquaintances, just to save the room rent.
Any comments?