Occupancy rate an all time in Gujarat hotels, courtesy polls

Hoteliers in Gujarat are raking in moolah as political leaders of various political parties are in the State for the election campaigning, and their stay here along with their supporters have led to an all time high occupancy rate in the hotels.

Ahmedabad, Dec 15 : Hoteliers in Gujarat are raking in moolah as political leaders of various political parties are in the State for the election campaigning, and their stay here along with their supporters have led to an all time high occupancy rate in the hotels.

Almost every popular hotel in Ahmedabad proudly displays 'houseful' signboard.

Hiteshbhai, a member of Hotel Association in Ahmedabad said, "This time due to elections and wedding season the business has gone up to 5-7 percent. Hotels are packed to capacity. With politicians, media persons and our regular corporate visitors this time our hotels are packed."

Amidst this trend, the most affected are the casual tourists and visiting businessmen who are being turned away, especially if they don't have any advance bookings.

Vikas Sangawar, a corporate executive from Mumbai, was one such unlucky person.

"With elections and other festive season NRIs, politicians, media persons are flocking to Gujarat. I am looking for a hotel. But all of them are 100 percent occupied," said Vikas.

The hoteliers, however, are delighted and expect that the heavy booking will last beyond elections.

Most of the hoteliers have doubled up the accommodation cost looking at the flow of visitors in Gujarat amid growing demand for rooms. There are approximately 150 star-rated hotels in the Gujarat.

While tourist arrivals, including domestic and foreign, rose from 6.6 million in 2004 to 10 million in 2007, rooms in the star category as well as other odd hotels increased from 1,000 to 2,000 and 27,000 to 35,000 respectively.

In fact the persons assigned the task of accommodating the party big wigs from Delhi are finding it tough to fulfil their needs.

Rohit Patel, in charge for accommodation from Congress party said, "Ahead of elections and festive season, we are finding hard to accommodate our politicians as well as party members. We have shifted our party members to the residences of local party members."

Over 25,000 political party members and supporters are in Gujarat.

ANI