Tens of thousands of holidaymakers on Monday gathered across resorts in Himachal Pradesh to bid goodbye to 2018.
Seeing the tourist rush, the police advised the revellers to start leaving the Ridge, the most famous promenade in Shimla, as the clocks strike midnight.
"Our policemen will greet tourists after midnight and will request them to vacate the Ridge and the Mall," a senior police officer told IANS.
He said this step would be taken as a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident.
The most sought-after destinations were Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, Kasauli, Chail, Dharamsala, Palampur, Dalhousie and Manali and the revellers have to be prepared to sleep out in cars overnight if they did not get hotel bookings in advance.
Most of the hotels have been sold out in advance, members of the hospitality industry warned.
"Most of our properties in Shimla, Chail, Kufri, Kasauli, Dharamsala, Palampur and Manali have been sold out till January 3," Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) General Manager Sarla Chopra told IANS.
She said most of the guests have been enquiring about the possibility of snowfall on the New Year's Eve and later.
Over 50,000 tourists are expected to visit the state to ring in New Year, tourism industry experts said.
The popular tourist town of Narkanda, some 65 km from Shimla, saw last spell of snow on December 12 but it melted within a few days.
So was Shimla, known for the imperial grandeur of buildings that were once institutions of power when it was the summer capital of British India, where the entire snow cover disappeared. Shimla's meteorological office Director Manmohan Singh told IANS tourist towns like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Manali and Dalhousie, located in mid-hills, may witness moderate snowfall from January 1.