Sanjeev Gandhi, State Co-Convener the Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of Himachal (FOHRA ) has informed at Dharmshala on Thursday that , Department of Tourism, Himachal has accepted their team to finalize SOP guidelines to open the Tourism industry in the state. “ Director Tourism & civil aviation HP has sent a letter to FOHRA inviting its proposed panel for a video conference on the said matter on 26 June,”said Gandhi. He further said, “ We are glad to share that one of our key requests, which we are raising to the State Govt to involve us in the formation of the Tourism Policies is getting noticed.” Earlier this month the Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of Himachal (FOHRA ) has written a letter to Sh Devesh Kumar Secretary,Tourism & Civil Aviation, Govt of Himachal Pradesh, rejecting governments offer to open Hotels etc and informing him about the formation of an experts panel by FOHRA to streamline the SOP guidelines .
Sanjeev Gandhi, informed that in its letter FOHRA said, “In our continued efforts to re-open the tourism sector in Himachal Pradesh, it is important to streamline the standard operating procedures (SOP) those are mutually convenient to both tourism stakeholders and the Govt of Himachal Pradesh." It has suggested the government about a fifteen member panel, including highly experienced hoteliers from Dharamshala, Manali, Shimla, Dalhousie, Chamba, Kasouli,Khajiyaar, Mandi and Bilaspur. Before that in the first week of June the government of HP allowed the hospitality industry to re start from 8 th June. Hoteliers in HP said “no” to the government to open the industry under the very strict government’s advisory, and conveyed industry's decision not to open the hotels, home-stay units and resorts and refused to accept the proposal of the tourism department to re-start operations from June 8. The members of the hotel association also alleged that the government was trying to shift the entire burden of containing the corona virus on the distressed hotel industry and also asking them to re-start the operations.