Gujarat finds favour with foreign tourists

Many may argue that Gujarat is losing much in its tourism sector because of its prohibition policy. But the figures released by the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd. (TCGL) tell a different story.

The latest tourist arrival figures released by the TCGL show that there has been a substantial increase in the inflow of foreign tourists, NRI tourists as well as tourists from within India in the last four years.

During the year 2005-06, a total of 86,500 foreign tourists visited the state, compared with 21,567 that visited in 2004-2005. While in the year 2003-04, the number of foreign tourists in the state was 31,271, in 2002-03 it stood at 37,252.

Speaking to Business Standard, CD Patel, state minister for tourism said, "The year 2005-06 saw a huge rush of foreign tourists because we had arranged many cultural celebrations as a part of the tourism year celebration." He said as the state had a number of natural beauty and monuments and cultural heritage to boost its tourism sector, it can afford not having liquor to offer to its guests.

The inflow of NRI tourists was also on the rise, according to the figures. During 2005-06, 1,07,208 NRI tourists visited the state. This number was limited to only 38,420 in the year 2004-05. In 2003-04, the number was 33,836 while in 2002-03, only 26,284 NRIs visited the state. Medical tourism has emerged as one of the biggest NRI tourist attracting sectors in Gujarat.

"The efforts by the state have started to pay off. The infrastructure is better and we are arranging as many cultural festivities as possible. Earlier, there was a lack of sufficient luxury hotels in the state but now Gujarat has many such hotels and many more will come up in the near future. The state has so much to offer to its tourists, whether they are foreigners or NRIs. Medical tourism also has played a crucial part," Patel said.

Meanwhile, the figures also show that the number of tourists from other Indian states too increased during the same period. During 2005-06, a total of 26,66,683 tourists visited the state.

In 2005-04, this number stood at 15,76,391 and in 2004-03, it was 19,63,945. While during 2002-03, only 14,72,625 tourists from the other Indian states had visited the state.

Talking about the increased number of tourists from the other Indian states, the minister said, "This is because of better road and air connectivity and the promotional tours and programmes we carried out last year."

Patel, however, accepted that the state's tourism sector can perform much better with aggressive marketing and branding of its tourism sector in the country as well as abroad.

"We are in talks with some agencies, which will also design and campaign our promotional programmes across the globe. With every year, we are increasing the annual budgetary allotment to the sector," Patel said.