This City Beats Shimla In Tourist Numbers This Summer

Come summer and North Indians begin their annual pigrimage to the hills. The preferred destinations being Himachal Pradesh.

The Numbers

With over 74 lakh tourists visiting Himachal Pradesh till May this year, the tourist footfall has increased marginally by 3.5 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year.

A total of 74,64,184 tourists including 32,415 foreign tourists visited the state till May end as compared to 72,02,956 tourists including 23,174 foreign tourists in the same period last year, an increase of 3.5 per cent, said Tourism and Civil Aviation Director Manasi Sahay Thakur.

Surprisingly, tourist inflow in Solan district has surpassed Shimla. According to the data, maximum tourists visited Kullu (14,97,920) followed by Solan (10,41,074) and Shimla (9,99,065).

"Efforts are afoot to improve inter and intra state connectivity through construction of heliports. Major focus is on infrastructure development like creating wayside amenities besides opening wellness centres, construction of ice skating rinks, promoting eco and adventure tourism with the funding of Asian development Bank (ADB)," she told the PTI.

Private players are also engaged in advance to ensure sustainability of tourism projects and the results will be visible in the next three years, she added.

"Kasauli and Chail are most sought after destinations in Solan district and the tourism department has put new destinations on tourism maps like Reva water fall in Solan. People are preferring approachable destinations at short distance," Thakur said.