Kolkata: Music composer A R Rahman became the brand ambassador of Sikkim on Monday. The declaration was made by Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling who felicitated the legendary music composer during an inauguration of the 11-day Sikkim Red Panda Winter Carnival at Palzor Stadium in Gangtok on Monday. The declaration was greeted by a huge applause.

“Sikkim is known for its authenticity, beauty and essence. I have several plans and I will come here often to discuss them. We can do a lot of musical collaboration for promotion of Sikkim as a tourist destination. I thank people of Sikkim for making me the brand ambassador of the state. I feel privileged and honoured. Let’s travel this journey together,” Rahman said. The music composer reached the Himalayan state on Sunday and was mobbed by his fans when he went to Mahatma Gandhi Marg for a morning stroll on Monday.

Sikkim hopes that Rahman’s appointment as the brand ambassador would give a huge fillip to the tourism of the state – one of the prime contributors to the economy of the hill state – and hope to leverage Rahman’s global outreach to increase tourist footfalls in the state. Despite Gorkhaland agitation in neighbouring Darjeeling Hills, Sikkim witnessed approximately 12 lakh tourist footfalls in 2017, a significant rise from 7.5 lakh domestic and 62,000 foreign tourist footfalls in 2016.

The winter carnival too is aimed at boosting tourism in the state and has music, dance, adventure sports and exhibition of organic food products of the state events lined up for the 11 days of the festival. Besides Rahman, Priyanka Chopra will be visiting Sikkim in April for the premiere of her home production ‘Pahuna-The Little Visitors’ that was entirely shot and is based in the Himalayan state.