The increasing naxal activity in Bastar region and tourism department’s neglect has cast a dark shadow over the hotel business in the area endowed with natural beauty.
The terror among the tourists is now overpowering their will to explore Bastar’s heritage. The department has done some efforts to boost tourism though they were not considered sufficient and as a result, number of visitors has slouched considerably in the recent years. The hotels that once were abuzz with tourist now remain empty throughout the day.
After 1995, a sudden wave had caused the tourism graph in Bastar to soar. With inflow of tourists from West Bengal, number of tourists had reached an annual figure of 50,000. Growing numbers had also increased expansion of railway network in Bastar. This had pulled a lot of businessmen to invest into hotel business in this area and earn handsome profit for a few years.
However, in the last couple of years disinterest of tourism department doubled with increased naxal activities wiped out the interest of tourists in Bastar. Number of hotels and resort had increased considerably by then. But this sudden dip caused huge losses to the businessmen.
Though a handful of tourists still venture into the region but the hotel industry is now far from being a profitable one. Bastar remained absent from major tourism fairs. No tour packages were offered to people to lure them to Bastar. In absence of attractive tour packages and proper transportation, visiting Bastar summed up to be a costly affair for the tourists. Visitors from West Bengal, who were a major community of tourists, gradually began to drift away from Bastar because of poor facilities.
Interestingly, Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh (MP) attracts much more tourists as compared to Bastar. Both Bastar and Pachmarhi are located approximately at equal distance from their respective state capitals. But keeping the Naxal menace aside, Chhattisgarh tourism department lags far behind its MP counterpart in terms of promoting tourism in the State.