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Shimla : Himachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy inaugurated a newly set up coffee shop at Tourist Information Centre in Tutikandi Bypass here today.This is an initiative of tourism department and the shop would be operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC). The catering facilities in the coffee shop were on very nominal rates and efforts would be made to operate it round-the-clock.Appreciating the initiative of opening the food joint at an appropriate location which would facilitate tourists round the clock, Mr Roy said it would also attract local people of the town.He said a parking space for about 600 to 800 vehicles would also be constructed opposite the Centre for which codal formalities would be completed soon.He said the endeavour would help in promotion of tourism in the state and apart from information about various tourist destinations, the visitors would avail facilities like online hotel accommodation booking and sight-seeing packages in the TIC.Mr Roy said Handloom-Handicraft and HPMC products would also be displayed in the Centre to acquaint the visitors about the richness of traditional crafts of the state. He said apart from government hotel booking, a separate counter for private hotel booking would also be offered to the hotel association.The Chief Secretary said the tourist inflow in the state was constantly increasing year after year. During the year 2011, tourist arrival to the state was 1.50 crore including 4.84 lakh foreign tourists whereas it was 1.32 crore including 4.53 lakh foreign tourists in 2010.

He said the state government had taken new initiatives for tourism promotion with a view to divert the tourist traffic to lesser known areas and decongest the oversaturated tourist destinations.

He said 'Home Stay' and 'Har Gaon Ki Kahani' schemes were a step forward in this direction. Twelve more cluster villages in the state would be developed under 'Har Gaon Ki Kahani' scheme in the second phase and stories of selected villages have been invited through Deputy Commissioners concerned. The second phase would be started from August 15.