Dateline Mussoorie: At 2,005 meters the spirit of Christmas is in the air. Shops, hotels, restaurants are decked up in Christmas colours of red, green and gold making it a visual delight for local residents and tourists.
At the Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels The Savoy Mussoorie, a fifteen feet Christmas tree adds to the grandeur of the hotel. “Marking the beginning of the festive season many celebrations are lined up to bid farewell to 2021 and welcome 2022 on a happy note,” says General Manager WelcomeHotel The Savoy, Gautam Valli, further adding, “While Shivaay and Cardamom music bands will perform at The Savoy Mussoorie on the 25th of December, DJ Sumaya and Rudhaari will ring in 2022 with their music.”
Back-to-back celebrations begin with the Landour Mela on the 25th-26thof December around the Upper Chakkar from Chardukan to Lal Tibba via Sister Bazaar. The annual Winterline Carnival scheduled from the 27th-29th of December along the Mall road was postponed last evening seeing the recent rise in Covid infected numbers.
The administration is ensuring that the events over the festive week are stream-lined with less traffic snarls along with Covid appropriate behaviour being followed strictly, SHO Mussoorie, Girishchand Sharma reiterates, “Extra force of hundred police men will be on duty from tonight until the 2nd of January. Bottleneck such as Picture Palace, Landour, Library entry-points will have extra force to ensure that there is not much congestion orelse traffic will be diverted. We have a task force in place that will ensure that Covid protocol such as masks, social distancing task are followed to the tee.”
President of Uttarakhand Hotel Association, Sandeep Sahni speaks for all those associated with the hotel industry in the hill-state when he says, “things were looking very promising until the end of November, but ever since the Omicron variant made it appearance in India, bookings have been considerably low. As of today, there is an average of 50%-60% booking across the state.”
