Tourism in Darjeeling is not an uncommon phenomenon, where as early as mid 1800 British, Europeans, Anglo- Indians and Bengali aristocrats from Calcutta and Dhaka visited Darjeeling (Subbha 1988)[#1]. Tourism holds a vital economic importance to Darjeeling.
Some of the remote wilderness areas of Darjeeling have been of significant attraction to visitors amongst which Singalila landscape is prominent. Visited by the globally renowned botanist J.D. Hooker in the mid 1880s, along with eminent mountaineers, writers and explorers, Singalila was officially open to tourists after it was declared a National Park around 1992-1993. Tourism thereafter saw an exponential growth in the first ten years which had both positive and negative implications for Singalila National Park (SNP).The Park currently receives more than 8,000 visitors annually.