BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of the Rath Yatra of the Holy Trinity which will see participation of devotees after two years of COVID-19 pandemic, all hotel rooms - both big and small - in Puri have already been sold out.
One of the grandest festivals in Odisha's cultural calendar, Rath Yatra draws lakhs of devotees every year. With the festival being held without any COVID restrictions this time, the district administration is expecting a crowd of 12 lakh to 15 lakh devotees.
According to the Tourism department and Puri Hotel Owners Association, 99 per cent of hotel rooms were booked much ahead of time and the visitors are from all parts of the country. However, inquiries from international tourists for the festival have remained low.
The Pilgrim Town of Puri has at least 1,000 rooms in big hotels including luxury properties, and another 8,000 in standard hotels of different categories like budget accommodations, lodges and holiday homes.
"Rath Yatra has always been the biggest crowd-puller in the State. Now when the Covid-19 numbers are down and travel restrictions have been done away with, the number of visitors to Puri during the festival is bound to rise compared to what it was during pre-COVID period. Online bookings in many hotels began early this year and by today, everything has been sold out," said Puri Hotel Owners Association president Rama Krushna Das Mohapatra.
Puri Tourist Officer Saroj Pradhan said the average duration of each booking for Rath Yatra is a minimum of three days as the visitors tend to visit other tourist attractions like Chilika, Satapada, Konark after watching the Rath Yatra.
As per the current tourist booking trend, 60 per cent visitors’ traffic are from West Bengal, the rest 40 pc from other parts of the country. However, amid the tourism boom, what has come as a setback for hoteliers and tour operators is lack of ticketed rooftop viewing of Rath Yatra this time.
With the Odisha government demolishing all hotels and other properties within the prohibited area and some in the regulated area of Srimandir for the Parikrama project, hoteliers have not been able to book rooftop viewing of the grand festival.
The one or two hotels that are located on the Grand Road have sold their Rath Yatra packages at rates as high as Rs 50,000 for a 3-day tour, sources said.
According to official reports, there were 41 hotels and lodges and 230 residential houses on the Grand Road which offered rooftop viewing of Rath Yatra at a price beginning Rs 1,000 before the demolitions for the project began last year. The rooftop viewing was included in Rath Yatra packages by tour operators.