In 4 months Himachal records 51.49 tourists
Shimla: As temperatures soar to over 40 degrees elsewhere in the country, tourist season has picked up at hill stations of Himachal with recording over 51 lakh of visitors to the state in four months, top officials disclosed.
There have been 50,29,952 domestic tourists and 1,19,349 foreigners who have visited the state till end of April this year, Arun Sharma, director tourism said. Favoured destinations of the visitors were Kullu, Kangra and Shimla he added.
While about 9.25 lakh tourists visited Kullu valley, Kangra had about 7.15 lakh, there were over 10 lakh visitors recorded in Shimla district, said the official.
Shimla, Manali, Dharmshala, Dalhousie and Kasauli were among the most preferred destinations. In peak May-June the officials expect an influx of around 35 lakh tourists.
With an addition of about 300 new hotels in 2011 and the state having recorded about 1.32 lakh tourists in 2010, the tourism department is expecting the number of tourists visiting the state to cross the figure of 1.5 crore in the year.
Tourism a major growth driver for the hill state records more number of tourists than the state population of 68.56 lakhs which was recorded in 2011 provisional census.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
