Record 11.4 mn tourists visit Himachal in 2009

Despite a worldwide recession, the highest number of tourists — 11.4 million, visited Himachal Pradesh (HP) last year.

“As compared to 9.75 million tourists in 2008, the number rose to 11.4 million in 2009, including 400,583 foreigners,” state Chief Minister P K Dhumal said in reply to a question in the state assembly today here.

Speaking about developing new tourist areas in the state Dhumal said 125 places have been proposed to be developed across the state for which funds have been sanctioned by both the centre and state governments.

“To develop helicopter-taxi service in the remote areas, the state government is proposing open invitation and other models for plying heli-taxi services in the state,” he said.

“To conduct heli-skiing in Manali, an agreement has been signed with Himachal Helicopter Skiing Ltd Manali in 2006 for a period of three years. Due to lack of snow there was no heli-skiing in the last two years. But heli-skiing is being conducted regularly this year,” Dhumal said.