Sikkim destinations nearly fully booked amid winter tourist rush; stay confirmation is mandatory.

According to officials on Sunday, Sikkim is seeing a spike in visitor arrivals over the winter, with several well-known locations reporting near-capacity occupancy.

While Lachen and Gurudongmar Lake have been off-limits to tourists since June of this year, hotels and homestays in popular tourist destinations like Lachung in North Sikkim are completely booked.

Since December 22, foot traffic has increased at locations including Tsomgo Lake, Nathula Pass, and Zuluk in East Sikkim. The magnitude of the winter surge was reflected in the 1,516 tourist cars that visited Tsomgo, Baba Mandir, and Nathula Pass on December 28, according to government data. A total of 6,080 tourists, both domestic and foreign, visited Nathula on that same day. In the winter of last year, the equivalent number was approximately 5,000. According to officials, 3,418 of the domestic visitors were men, 1,621 were women, and 874 were children. Twenty males, twenty-one women, and twenty-six children were among the foreign tourists.

“There is a scarcity of bikes in Sikkim, and bike adventure tourism has grown dramatically since last year. Due to the mandatory two-night, one-day booking standard, North Sikkim is completely booked, while Gangtok and Pelling have also experienced a sharp increase in hotel reservations “, according to a senior Tourism Department official.

Before travelling to North Sikkim, he advised travellers to confirm their reservations for lodging. The official went on to say that the abrupt increase in visitors has also been caused by ongoing snowfall in some of the most popular tourist destinations.