According to data available from the Administration, 495 foreign tourists visited the city in May against 1993 tourists in April. At the same time, a nominal increase in domestic tourists was seen in the same month. As many as 40,255 domestic tourists visited the city in May against 34,864 in April.

CITCO Managing Director Satish Chandra blamed the general economic recession which India has been experiencing for the past two years and said that it has hit the tourism industry. Tourists inflow was largely affected in June due to the Kargil conflict. In that month, hotel occupancy rate fell below 50 per cent.

Although occupancy rates in Hotel Shivalikview is about 50 per cent and in Hotel Mountview roughly 60 per cent, Satish Chandra asserted that tourist traffic is "limping back to normal".

However, contrary to the official's claim, hotel owners said that industrial recession had hit the hotel industry badly. President of the Hotel Association of Chandigarh, B.B. Bahl said there is no serious effort to attract the tourists to the City. He called for stepping up cultural activity and tourism campaigns with the help of government to make the City more attarctive for the tourists.

General secretary of the Association, Ashok Bansal said though there were 800 rooms in the city, there were atleast 1,500 more rooms made avaiable through illegal guest houses, which were not only harming the tourist industry but also the tourist interests.

While admitting low hotel occupancy, CITCO officials said that, in addition to the rooms available in hotels, as many as 86 rooms have been constructed at Hotel Mountview in anticipation of the tourist season and to cope with the rush during mega events and conventions. They blamed depressed economic conditions and availability of illegal and unauthorised accommodations in the city for the low occupancy rate.

Tehel Singh, owner of a popular restaurant specialising in chicken in Sector 22, said that before the Kargil action, tourists, mainly from South, visited the city, but within days of the commencement of the action, these visitors left the city, cutting short their long seasonal holiday.

In order to encourage tourists to visit the city, the Chandigarh Administration has devised several schemes to be put into effect next year. As per the schemes submitted to the Union Ministry of Tourism, Rs 2.32 crore would be invested in the current financial year while last year this expenditure was hardly 1.8 crore. The schemes include promotion of the annual Festival of Gardens and the Chandigarh Carnival, purchase of boats and providing allied facilities in Sukhna Lake, installation of a musical fountain at the Sector 17 City Centre, setting up of an Eco-Tourism Wildlife Park at Sukhna Lake, a Fun Theme Park. The 1999-2000 UT budget for tourism promotion is Rs 77 lakh against Rs 51 lakh sanctioned for 1998-99.

Meanwhile, a city tourism promotion society including representatives of the travel industry, corporations and hotel managements, with Aroma Hotel proprietor and Hotel and Restaurant Association of Chandigarh (HRAC) president Manmohan Singh as its president.

When contacted, Singh said that the objective of the society was to find ways to promote tourism, especially for foreign tourists. The society will facilitate budget tourists by providing titerature with complete information, he said and added that present the hotel occupancy, both government and private run, has gone down to 45 per cent.