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Long weekend, school holidays give good start to winter tourism
Visitors from north India are thronging Shimla and nearby areas to spend their holidays. The tourist inflow is expected to increase in the upcoming days.
School holidays clubbed with a long weekend has given a good booster to tourism sector in Himachal with many tourists storming the state capital during the current festive season.
Visitors from north India are thronging Shimla and nearby areas to spend their holidays. The tourist inflow is expected to increase in the upcoming days.
Simranjeet Singh, a tourist from Punjab’s Mohali, said, “I have been visiting Shimla for many years now and I love this place. A lot has changed here over a period of time. It takes only few hours from Chandigarh to reach Shimla, which is a great getaway to spend the weekends.”
“Due to festive season, schools are shut and being a weekend, I also had some free time. So we decided to spend our holidays in Shimla,” said another tourist from Panchkula, Vinod Kumar, who is here with his family.
Shimla, also popular as the hill queen, has always remained one of the favourite tourist destinations for national and international tourists.
With its rich history and heritage buildings such as Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, also known as Vice Regal Lodge, Town Hall and Gaiety Theatre among others, Shimla continues to attract tourists throughout the year.
President of Shimla Hotel and Restaurant Association Sanjay Sood said, “The average hotel occupancy in Shimla is about 60%. Most of the tourists are from Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab. Tourist inflow during the weekdays is normal, but it increases on the weekends.”
Tourist inspector, Shimla, Ravi Dhiman said, “Tourist influx this year is more as compared to 2018. Most of the tourists prefer to visit excursion points like Kufri, Naldehra and Narkanda during the day time and return to Shimla by the evening.”
Himachal Pradesh government gives tourism a high priority as the sector contributes about 6.6% to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The state has nearly 3,066 hotels, having bed capacity of about 85,823, registered with the government. Himachal also has at least 1,340 registered homestay units with bed capacity of 7,702.
At least 4,000 to 5,000 tourists’ vehicles daily enter the capital city on an average, and the figure goes up to 7,000 during weekends.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has reiterated several times that his government was focusing to develop new tourist destinations in the state.
The chief minister had said that in order to boost the tourism sector and provide employment opportunities to the youth, his government was identifying virgin tourist destinations such as Jhanjheri in Mandi district, which will be further developed as a tourism hub.
