Shimla/Kullu, Dec 31 : Tourists from all over the country and foreigners have poured into Himachal Pradesh to celebrate the New Year at the state’s best hill stations.

Shimla and Kullu have always been the preferred holiday destinations for domestic as well as foreign tourists, but the end of the year has seemed to work wonders for these hill stations as the influx of tourists soar year-on-year.

All the three hill stations have arranged for ice games, parties and other treats for their respective guests.

In Shimla, ice-skating, fancy dress, ice hockey, figure skating and fire dance show on ice attracted hundreds of tourists in Shimla.

The organizers believe that this helps the skaters to show their skills and also to entertain the tourists coming here to celebrate New Year from different parts of the country.

"Today itself we have a lot of tourists coming here to see this carnival. This always has been a tourism promotional event. Recently, from last year 2-3 years we have made entries free though earlier we used to charge," said Devesh Banga, secretary of Shimla ice skating club.

Kullu has also organised a number of snow sports to entertain the tourists. While tourists have come in thousands to Kullu to celebrate the New Year, the favored spot for most of them is where they are enjoying snow sports.

The state administration is also well prepared so that the tourists do not face any inconvenience during their stay.

"There has been an increase of about 24 percent in tourist arrivals if we compare it to the corresponding period of the last year.

As regards the preparation and arrangements to be made by the administration and the tourism department, we would like to inform you that we have provided 50 Home Guards from Tourism Division Council of Manali to the police department for traffic management and maintenance of law and order," said Rajeshwar Goyal, sub-divisional magistrate, District Tourism Office, Manali. (ANI)