Dharamshala, May 16 -- Dropped during Covid, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Himachal have still not reached the pre-pandemic levels. The stakeholders have attributed the sluggishness to ongoing global conflict, and emergence of southeast asian countries as a new tourist hub.

Kangra district tourism development officer, Vinay Dhiman, said, "The recovery has been taking place gradually over the years, but the number still remains lower than the pre-pandemic period. After the pandemic, several southeast asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia introduced new tourism models to attract more foreign tourists. They brought significant changes to their hospitality industries, which is one of the reasons the trend has s...