After Covid, foreign tourists give Himachal a miss

Tribune News Service

Navneet Rathore

Shimla, February 13

Despite witnessing a surge in the inflow of domestic tourists, the state, which is known for various prominent hill stations, including Shimla, Manali, Dharamshala, Kullu and Dalhousie, is struggling to attract foreign tourists post Covid pandemic. Tourism activities were badly affected after the surge of Covid cases in the state as well as the country and it dropped to zero after the imposition of indefinite lockdown in March 2020.

During the pre Covid era, Himachal Pradesh used to attract lakhs of international tourists. However, the state is yet to reach the numbers of international tourists ever since tourism activities got back to normal.

As per the statistics of the Department of Tourism, only 58,469 international tourists visited the state in 2023 (January 1 to November 30), which is quite less than the number of international tourists that used to visit the state before the pandemic.

In 2023, only 18,774 tourists visited Shimla, a town which has many monuments that were built during the British era and was also the summer capital during the same era. Similarly, only 10,003 international tourists visited Kullu district, which has several tourist destinations that are very popular amongst the international tourists. Kangra district was only able to attract 15,184 international tourists during the 11 months’ time, highest for any district in the state.

However, international tourist inflow in 2023 was better than its preceding year but nowhere near what it was before the pandemic. In 2021 only 4,832 foreign tourists visited the state. However, as many as 42,664 international tourists had visited Himachal Pradesh in 2020, a year in which first lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus was imposed.

In 2019, as many as 3,82,876 international tourists visited the state, while in 2018 around 3,56,568 international tourists had visited the state throughout the year. As many as 4,70,992 visited Himachal Pradesh in 2017, 4,52,770 in 2016, 4,06,108 in 2015 and 3,89,699 in 2014.

Mohinder Seth, president, Shimla Hotels and Tourism Stake Holders Association, said the state was indeed struggling to attract foreign tourists like it used to do before the pandemic hit. Recently, the inflow of international tourists had witnessed a major drop.

He said there were many factors behind this issue. “One of the main reasons is that Himachal Pradesh is facing stiff competition from Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhad. The state government needs to spend more on publicity to attract more international tourists. There is a dire need of mass publicity to attract tourists and the state government should double or triple the budget of the amount that is spent on the publicity of the state,” he said.

He further said that the inflow of inflow tourists was expected to witness a huge boost this year.

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