According to a PTI report, the economic slowdown across the world may hit the tourism industry in other parts of the country, but the tourism sector in the Himalayan state of Sikkim has risen by over ten per cent till last year, according to figure compiled by the tourism department. As per the release by state tourism department, the state received 3.87 lakh tourists in 2008 in comparison to 3.49 lakh tourists in the year before.
The number of visiting domestic tourists stood at 3.68 lakh last year as against 3.31 lakh in 2007, while the foreign tourists' intake last year was 19,154 as against the corresponding figure of 17,837. Sikkim, which has a favourable climate making people visit the state, has become a tourist destination round the year with even the rainy months of May and June luring about 20,000 tourists. The months of April and May have been booming period in terms of tourism-related business with about 70,000 visiting the state in each of these two months.
The tourist inflow from the foreign countries, mostly from Europe and America, |