The hill state of Himachal Pradesh known for its scenic beauty has emerged as one of the popular destination to foreign tourists, mainly form the US, UK, France and Australia with the state recording the arrival of nearly five lakh tourists from these countries last year.

Since foreigners love adventure tourism, the rugged terrain of Himachal Pradesh offer them a large number of such events like mountaineering, mountain biking, paragliding, vintage car rally, skiing and river-rafting, being organised with active support of the government agencies, state’s director tourism Arun Sharma said.