JOIN US In a unique initiative to make tourism business more fruitful in Himachal Pradesh, the state Tourism Department is all set to take tourists to apple orchards.
“We are going to link tourism with our apple industry, both major contributors to our economic development, by offering an opportunity to our guests to visit the orchards located across the state,” Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board vice chairman Vijai Singh Mankotia said.
He said the board would hold an apple festival in the state capital in association with the state Horticulture Department. “We have invited the apple growers to the festival so that they could showcase their products and allure tourists to their orchards,” he said.
The former tourism minister said as most of the rural homestay units are located amid the orchards, the festival would be an opportunity to promote these off-beat destinations.“A chance to pluck apples and milk cows amid a rural setting is certainly going to make city slickers gung-ho,” Mankotia added.
The rural homestay scheme, started in 2008, succeeds in driving tourists from traditional hotspots like Shimla, Dharamsala and Manali to offbeat destinations.
Over 550 homestay units with a room capacity of around 1,500 have been registered with the state. Out of these, over 187 alone are in the Kullu-Manali region. The Shimla and Dharamsala areas have 77 and 69 units respectively.
Dev Rattan of Rattan Cottage, a homestay unit in the picturesque Sangla Valley in Kinnaur district some 275 km from Shimla, said: “We are going to participate in the apple fest to showcase our orchard.”
He said this is the best time to visit the area as harvesting of apples has just picked up and winter has set in. “One can pluck and relish the fruit or even can see labourious jobs from plucking to packing the fruit to lugging the boxes.”