Sikkim winter carnival and film festival to welcome tourists

With a winter carnival and a film festival lined up this week, the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim is trying to turn December into a peak tourist season.
Organised by the state Tourism Department, the six-day Sikkim Winter Carnival will start from December 14 where various cultural events, music shows, arts and crafts exhibitions and adventure activities like para-gliding, mountain biking and rock climbing would engage tourists.
Coinciding with this would be the 'Small Town Film Fest' which will showcase over 26 films by independent film-makers from all over the world over a four-day period.
Organised by Cafe Fiction, the festival also features works of three directors from Sikkim.

Another unforgettable moment for travellers would be the showering of flower petals from a helicopter flying over the Himalayas during one of the events.
Tourism department officials said they are expecting a 30 per cent increase in tourists this December.
"December is not our peak tourist season but we want to portray Sikkim as a round-the-year tourist attraction. The Himalayas have a different charm in the winters and we are banking on that. With so many activities planned for tourists we are expecting a 30-40 per cent hike in the number of tourists in December," Pema L Shangderpa of the department of tourism and civil aviation told PTI.

He said in December 2013, 56,000 domestic and 1300 foreign tourists had visited Sikkim.