Despite the slowdown, hill stations of Himachal Pradesh attracted nearly 5 lakh foreign tourists in 2011, an increase of more than 30,000 than the previous year. A total of 4.85 lakh foreign tourists visited Himachal in 2011 as against 4.53 lakh in 2010, an increase of 32,000 tourists, according to Himachal tourism department data.

A total of 6.29 million foreign tourists visited India last year. The majority of foreigners who visited Himachal were from the UK, the US and France followed by Australia. Shimla, Kullu and Kangra district in Himachal have emerged as popular international tourist destinations.