Smiles are back in Kodagu’s tottering hospitality sector

After last year’s landslides, hotels and resorts in the coffee land saw 100 per cent occupancy for the first time this weekend

Tourists at Kodagu, the best known hill station in Karnataka.

After a gap of almost a year, hotels and resorts in Kodagu, which is back on its feet after last year’s worst-ever floods and landslides, have registered 100% occupancy.

The hospitality sector was badly hit since the tragedy in the district and it took almost a year for the industry to witness tourists coming in droves to the land of coffee.

Hotels and resorts in Kodagu have about 6,000 rooms, and almost all of them had been occupied since Friday. “We need to remember this weekend forever as it gave a new lease of life to the hotel industry, which was in a miserable state with tourists staying away from the hill station. This had forced many promoters to put up their hotels for sale,” said Nagendra Prasad, President, Kodagu Hotels, Restaurants and Resorts Association.

He told

The Hindu that about 30,000 people are directly employed in the tourism industry in Kodagu of which the hospitality sector accounts for about 6,000 employees. As many as one lakh people are indirectly dependent on the industry for their livelihood. “People can breathe easy if tourism thrives in Kodagu. If weather permits, the season can be extended till June first week before the monsoon sets in,” he observed.

One of the reasons for the increase in footfall was the end of exams, and also elections in this part of the region. People visit the hill stations to beat the heat. But, this time, even Kodagu has not been spared with the temperature hovering around 32 degree Celsius, which is high by Kodagu’s standards, according to the stakeholders.

“Some parts of Kodagu had rains over the last week. A few more spells of rains will cool the coffee land, making it comfortable for visitors. After June, the season starts only in October for Dasara vacation. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed and expecting the season in May to be better,” said Mr. Prasad.

Unconfirmed statistics put the number of rooms in home-stays at 20,000. Kodagu alone has 4,000 of them. If rooms in hotels and resorts are added, Kodagu has over 30,000 rooms. All these used to get filled up before floods struck the land, the stakeholders said.

Worrying times

Though the hill station had recovered from the natural calamity, tourism had not picked up despite efforts from both the government as well as the stakeholders. The hospitality sector was unable to cope with the loss of business.

“We had been telling throughout the year that Kodagu is safe to visit. The turnout since Friday showed people believed in what we said,” said Mr. Prasad.