Dharamshala, June 9 -- After witnessing a slowdown in tourist footfall last month due to the escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, Himachal Pradesh has seen a significant increase in tourist arrivals so far in June. The hotel occupancy has also risen in the first week of June, and hoteliers in the hill state are hopeful that the footfall will further increase in the coming weeks. In May, the tourism industry in Himachal suffered losses as many tourists cancelled their bookings amid uncertainty. Tourism stakeholders said that people were hesitant to travel due to the prevailing situation at the time. The closure of airports further restricted movement, adversely affecting tourism in the state. Shimla hotels and tourism stakeholders' association president Mohinder Kumar Seth said that the recent long weekend, due to Eid, helped boost tourism, with hotel occupancy in Shimla reaching around 80-90%. "The first week of June was better from a tourism perspective compared to the previous month, with occupancy touching up to 50% during weekdays. Last month, there was a steep decline in tourist footfall, and hotel occupancy was only around 20%, leading to significant losses for hoteliers," he said. "Since hotels are usually almost fully booked during June, we are expecting occupancy to rise further in the coming weeks, judging by the trend in the first week," he added. Ashwani Bamba, president of Hotel and Restaurant Association, Dharamshala, said the average hotel occupancy on this weekend was around 80% in Dharamshala and on weekdays it reached to around 50-55%. Manali in Kullu district has also seen a surge in the number of tourists in recent days. Anup Thakur, president of the Kullu-Manali Paryatan Vikas Mandal, said the hotel occupancy which had plummeted during May has gone up now. "At present, the occupancy is around 70% and we are hoping that it will further increase in the coming weeks" he said....