The ongoing Bangladesh unrest is set to hit Sikkim tourism that had just started limping back after a one-year lull caused by the glacial lake outburst flood in October 2023.

Following the Centre’s decision in 2018 to allow citizens of Bangladesh to visit Sikkim, there had been a huge rush from that country to visit the Himalayan state.

In 2019, just a year after the bar was lifted for citizens of Bangladesh on visiting Sikkim, the state received 1.33 lakh foreign tourists.

“Out of these, as many as 60,542 were from Bangladesh and 56,781 were from Nepal,” said a source.

This is because Sikkim is the nearest destination for Bangladesh tourists to visit the snowfields.

Even though Sikkim tourism was badly hit by the glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) that occurred in October 2023, tourists from Bangladesh did not stop.

“In 2023, we received 40,597 Bangladeshi tourists. It was just a shade less than the 41,729 tourists from Nepal” said a source.

This year, 27,126 tourists from Bangladesh visited Sikkim until October. This was despite the fact that connectivity to Sikkim and especially to the northern parts of the state, was badly affected by the October 2023 GLOF.

In fact, north Sikkim was opened to tourists only from December 1, 2024, after a closure of more than a year.

“The first batch of tourists to travel to north Sikkim on December 1 also included those from Bangladesh,” said a source.

Just when things were looking to pick up, the unrest in Bangladesh came as
a damper.

“Tourists from Bangladesh and Nepal account for the highest number of foreigners visiting Sikkim. The recent development across the border is not encouraging for Sikkim tourism,” said a hotelier from Gangtok.

Apart from the unrest, hoteliers from Bengal’s Siliguri and Malda have also decided not to accommodate travellers from Bangladesh.

“Tourists from Bangladesh prefer to stay in Siliguri for a day before proceeding to Sikkim,” said a hotelier from Gangtok.

A lull in Sikkim tourism also affects Darjeeling as travellers usually prefer to cover the Darjeeling-Sikkim circuit in one go.

“Even though tourists are visiting Darjeeling, the numbers are slightly fewer now compared to previous years when connectivity to Sikkim was good,” said a hotelier
from Darjeeling.