West Bengal's loss has become Uttarakhand's gain.
As the traditional tourist hotspots like Darjeeling and Srinagar remain embroiled in political unrest, Uttarakhand's Munsiyari has received tens of thousands of tourists this festive season -- 45,000 so far -- breaking all records.
"The numbers are still rising," a hotel owner in Munsiyari said.
"23,000 tourists reached Munsiyari in the year 2015, followed by 29,000 in 2016, and the number this year has increased to 45,000," a statement by the hotel association of Munsiyari read.
The head of hotel association in Muniyari, Jagdish Singh Rawat expects the number to grow.
"The pace of tourist arrivals seems to be increasing as daily bookings for hotels and home stay facilities in and around the town still continue," he said.
"The high influx of tourists in Munsiyari has been caused due to political unrest in traditional tourists places like Darjeeling and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the visiting tourists are from West Bengal," he said.
According to the hotel association, there is not a single vacant hotel or home stay facility, in and around Munsiyari, between September 25 and October 20 as all the 35 tourists facilities have already been booked by tourists.
Keeping in view this tourism windfall, the hotel owners have asked the district administration to improve the civic facilities.
"We have asked the administration to repair Thal to Munsiyari road as well as the local roads leading up to the tourist spots of Munsiyari as these damaged roads can spoil the visit of tourists," said Rawat.
Another Munsiyari hotelier Puran Pandey said the hotel and restaurants have made elaborate arrangements to cater to their Bengali guests by making available dishes they are usually fond of such as rice, posto, fishes and rossogulla.
"We have also arranged visits of the tourists to Nanda Devi temple, Shauka museum, Saras market Thamari kund, Mahesh Kund and several hot water springs and Khalia bugyal (meadow) located near the town," said Pandey.
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