Shimla, Mar 4 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu here on Monday inaugurated the Asian River Rafting Championship to be organised near Basantpur in the Sutlej River.
"As many as 20 National and International teams from Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Iran Iraq, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Indonesia are participating in this championship,” a statement issued here said.
After flagging off the teams participating in the championship, the chief minister said that the state government was committed to promoting adventure tourism in Himachal and in this direction, a river rafting marathon was also organised at Nadaun in Hamirpur district recently.
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Besides this, a paragliding championship was also hosted at Junga in Shimla district last year, Sukhu said, adding that apart from promoting tourism, the hosting of adventure sports and other related tourism activities also creates self-employment opportunities and provides employment to the local people.
He said that the tourism sector was the mainstay in strengthening the state's economy and thousands of families were associated with this.
The Himachal government is making earnest efforts to increase the influx of tourists by strengthening the basic infrastructure in the tourism sector, Sukhu said.
We have fixed a target of attracting five crore tourists in the state annually, he reiterated.
