Sangai Festival: Foreign tourist may be double this time comparing last year

Imphal, Nov 21: Foreign tourists expected to visit the state in Sangai Festival this year is expected to be doubled comparing to last year, an independent survey conducted by Imphal Times base on the information collected from State Tourism Department, CID and major hotels in Imphal suggested.
As per source from the major hotels here in Imphal almost all rooms have been booked by individuals from outside the state and abroad who are visiting Sangai festival.
“At present 14 Foreign national are staying at Imphal Hotel and there is no vacancy as all rooms have been booked”, a source from the hotel said. Similar is the situation with other hotels like Classic Hotel, Classic Grande, Sangai Continental etc.
In 2016,  as many as 491 foreign tourists from across the globe visited Imphal during last year Sangai Festival. Govt. record showed a total of 184 foreign tourist visited Imphal to attend the Sangai festival and around 307 foreign tourists visited the state for their own personal purposes.
Last year govt. record said -72 Myanmarese, 41 from Thailand, 22 from Bangladesh, 16 from Japan, 7 each from United Kingdom and Australian, 6 from USA, 4 from China, 2 Bhutanese , 1 Norwegian, 1 French, 1 Danish, 1 Indonesian, 1 Lesotho and 1 Nigerian  attended the festival on the invitation of the state government. Those visited the state during last Sangai Festival on their own numbers around 307, mostly from European, South East Asia and USA.
This year, state government has invited more number of foreign visitors officially, a state government source said. Till today number of foreign national who had arrived in the state has reached 200 and the number will be rise in the coming two or three days, a source from the Festival enthusiast said.
Hotels, in Imphal have been booked by various visitors both from the foreign as well as domestic tourists from outside the state.