CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh Tourism Department witnesses a whopping increase in the number of tourists visiting the city in 2007.

Statistics released by the Department of Tourism UT Administration, revealed that as many as 9,54,726 of tourists visited city beautiful last year. Out of which 9,28,159 included domestic tourists while rest of 26,567 were foreigners.

There has been an increase of over 2 lacs domestic tourists over the previous year.

Statistics for the current year i.e. 2008, discloses that 78,555 domestic tourists visited in the month of January whereas 73,484 and 71,563 for the months of February and March respectively visited the city. The numbers of foreign tourists for January have been 2,092, for February 3,133 and 4,194 for the month of March.

The statistics for the last three years shows an increasing trend in the number of tourists both domestic and foreigners. In the year 2005, a total of 6,14,176 domestic tourists whereas 23,284 foreigners visited Chandigarh. In the year 2006, a total of 7,04,531 domestic tourists and 25,217 foreigners visited the city.

The continuous increase in the number of visitors has been the consequence of sustained efforts and Tourism activities conducted from time to time by the Administration, with the upgradation of the existing facilities at the Tourists spots by the Department of Tourism.

The data has been collected from the Government approved Hotels, Guest Houses and Lodging places in SCO's and SCF's scattered in different parts of the city and also from the police sources pertaining to the arrival of foreign nationals in Chandigarh.