Sikkim sees massive tourism growth post Covid-1

According to tourism department records, as many as 3.08 lakh domestic travellers visited the hill state of Sikkim between October last year and March 2022, with January being the most profitable month for various stakeholders of the sector at 98,456 visitors.

Tourism industry, the mainstay of Sikkim's economy, has got back on its feet since the lifting of the Covid 19-induced lockdown late last year, officials said.

According to tourism department records, as many as 3.08 lakh domestic travellers visited the hill state between October last year and March 2022, with January being the most profitable month for various stakeholders of the sector at 98,456 visitors.

As far as foreigners' footfall is concerned, 6,055 people visited Sikkim during the period. In 2019, the Himalayan state had recorded around 16 lakh tourist arrivals, and numbers, this year, too, are expected to rise over the course of the next few months.

Travel agents, after a lull for almost two years, have breathed a sigh of relief. Almost 75 per cent of the local population depends on the tourism industry in Sikkim, directly or indirectly.
The temporary shutdown of the tourism industry had spiked unemployment rate in Sikkim, which stood at 10 per cent when the Covid-19 situation was at its nadir, as per the data provided by the state’s Directorate of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation.