Mysore/Mysuru: With the entire country grappling with LPG cylinder crisis due to war in the Gulf, the Mysuru Hotel Owners Association has urged the Government to route at least  25 percent of commercial LPG cylinder supplies to the hotel Industry.

Addressing a press meet here yesterday, Association President C. Narayanagowda said that the current situation regarding LPG cylinder shortage reminds us of COVID times.

“There are about 1,500 hotels in the city and 10 percent of them have shut down due to non-supply of commercial cylinders. Though use of electric induction stoves and firewood has increased, this has reduced the problem to only some extent. The Government should consider the hotel Industry as an emergency service and take measures for continued supply of LPG cylinders”, Narayanagowda maintained.

Continuing, he said the LPG cylinder crisis has also hit the tourism industry. “Mysuru, which is an important tourist centre in the State, used to see 50,000 tourist footfalls every day during week days and 1.5 to 3 lakhs during weekends on an average. But due to non-availability of LPG cylinders, hotels are unable to meet the food needs for this large number of tourists. The crisis has also resulted in cancellation of advance room bookings by tourists,which has severely affected the hospitality industry. No new room bookings are being done, which has pushed the hospitality and the hotel industry into deep crisis. The disruption in cylinder supply has also hurt the employees and workers who are dependent on the hotel and hospitality industry for their livelihood, with hotels shutting down one after the other,” he noted.

Pointing out that other than the Public Sector Oil-Marketing companies, six private companies are selling LPG cylinders at present. But these private companies are selling cylinders at about Rs. 4,000 each, which is highly expensive for hoteliers, he said adding that currently, hoteliers have only marginally hiked prices of food in some cases. “However, due to shortage of cylinders, several hotel owners  have reduced the menu and recipes,” he said.

Association Hon. Secretary A.R. Ravindra Bhat, State Committee member Arun Kumar and Subramanya Tantri were present.