Tourism stakeholders in Sikkim are expecting a surge in tourist footfall in the coming Diwali weekend with the Himalayan state witnessing a steady flow of visitors ever since the sector reopened early in October.

It was only a month ago that Sikkim allowed entry of tourists and the inflow of visitors has rekindled the hopes of the stakeholders whose earnings had dried up since March because of Covid-19-induced lockdown.

The first phase of unlocking of tourism, which contributes handsomely to the state’s economy, began on October 10 after seven months of closure. Hotels, restaurants and other accommodations, however, are allowed to operate at only 50 per cent of their capacity.

There is no official data available on the number of tourist footfall, but the tourism stakeholders estimate that on an average anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 tourists have been arriving in the Himalayan state daily.

“We have taken a conscious decision not to have over 4,000 to 5,000 tourists daily. Since hotels are operating at 50 per cent capacity, the occupation rate right now should be around 60 to 70 per cent of the reduced capacity,’ said Roshan Raj Shrestha, the president of Sikkim Hotel and Restaurant Association (SHRA).

Shrestha said the idea behind unlocking tourism was to send a message across that Sikkim has put in place safe tourism practices to deal with the pandemic. “Luckily, not a single tourist has tested positive for coronavirus so far. We are hoping this will have a positive impact on next tourism season in April, May and June,” he added.

Over 16 lakh tourists, including a little less than 1.40 lakh foreigners, had visited the state last year. Which means the overall inflow of tourists was almost three times greater than the state’s 6.50 lakh population. The figure this year has suffered a drastic fall because of Covid. The tourism sector is estimated to have suffered losses running into tens of crores because of the pandemic.

“It will be impossible to recover losses this year. We will have to forget 2020 as a nightmare. Hopefully, if the coronavirus vaccine is available by early next year, we should do good business in both the spring and autumn seasons in 2021,” said a tour operator.