According to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report, Shillong, which once served as the summer getaway for the British colonialists along with Darjeeling Hills, has witnessed a phenomenal jump in the arrival of tourists. The city, atop the Khasi Hills, has become a great hit with the tourists for the last five years after the Kashmir Valley and Darjeeling Hills fell out of favour because of militancy and political trouble there. Shillong tourism department officials said although they were yet to compile the exact number of tourists visiting the destination, provisional estimates said there had been a 50 per cent increase in the last five years. The total number of tourists coming to Meghalaya last year was 4,62,952, as compared to 4,00,287 in 2006 and 2,71,720 recorded in 2002. |