Apple festivals in Manali, Shimla to promote tourism

Tribune News Service

Mandi, September 3

To promote tourism in the state, the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation in association with the Horticulture Department will organise apple festivals at Manali in Kullu district on September 6-7 and at Shimla on September 12-13, a spokesman of the Tourism Department said today.

A variety of apples grown in the state and dishes made from apples will be on display. There will be entertainment programmes for the visitors, he said.

The spokesman said the festival at Manali would be organised at Manu Rangshala where about 20 stalls would be set up. Food stalls would be installed near the HPTDC hotel, Manali.

Apples, apple products and exotic vegetables would be displayed at the Ridge and food product stalls would be at Padam Dev Complex in Shimla.

Besides exhibitions of various kinds, a painting competition for schoolchildren would also be organised at Gaiety Theatre in Shimla on September 11. To promote tourism in the state, the Tourism Department was also planning to take tourists in the vicinity of Shimla in coordination with the Horticulture Department, he added.

Tourism Development Corporation vice-chairman Vijay Singh Mankotia will inaugurate the festival in Manali on September 6.

An official in the Tourism Department said the festival was being organised after a gap of nearly seven years. The last time the festival was held in 2008.

However, an expert associated with the tourism sector said at present the presence of tourists in the town was nearly negligible. Organising the festival nowadays would not solve any purpose and it would be a sheer wastage of public money, he added.

After the National Green Tribunal had imposed a ban on all commercial activities at Rohtang Pass, Solang Nullah and Gulaba in the upper Manali region and restricted the number of vehicles going to the Rohtang Pass to 1,000 per day, the arrival of tourists in Manali had fell abysmally, he said.