More visitors from other states now choosing Gujarat as tourist destination

Years of efforts to promote Gujarat as an attractive destination for tourists seems to be showing results. Tourists from other states are the fastest growing segment in the state. While tourists from other states constituted just 21% of total inbound tourists in 2012-13, the share has firmed up to over 25% now. However, it is business travellers who form a major chunk, followed by travellers at religious destinations and, finally, comes leisure tourists.

According to the figures of state's Tourism department, Gujarat recorded just over 2.54 crore tourists in 2012-13, of which tourists from rest of India numbered 53.56 lakh or just about 21% of the total tourist count. In the first nine months of 2017-18, the total number of tourists rose to over 3.75 crore, of which 94.96 lakh were from other states, constituting 25.22% of total tourists. In 2016-17, 1.15 crore tourists from others visited Gujarat, constituting 26% of total 4.48 crore tourists.

State tourism minister Ganpat Vasava attributes the growth to the realisation of former Chief Minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "In 2001, the budget for tourism was just Rs45 crore, it has been increased to Rs450 crore. This enabled us to redevelop places and develop infrastructure and make them tourists friendly," said Vasava. The state government is banking high on the sector has it has tremendous ability to provide jobs in large numbers and that too in remote places. Tour operators say that considering the offerings Gujarat has, the number of inbound tourist should have been even more. "Krishna and Mahatma Gandhi are two big brand ambassadors of Gujarat. Now, the state government is tieing up with other state tourism departments to draw each other's tourist. Gujarat has arrangements with Rajasthan and MP," said Manish Sharma, founder and director of Ahmedabad-based Axar Travels Pvt Ltd.

Moreover, with Ahmeda-bad being declared as the first heritage city of the country has worked to the advantage of Gujarat. It has drawn attention to this unique offering of Gujarat to tourists from across the globe. The state government is banking on circuits like Gandhi Circuit and Buddhist Circuit to draw tourists. Year wise data indicate that Gujarat is steadily becoming an attractive destination for tourists of other states. On the contrary, the share of tourists from Gujarat had dropped from about 77% in 2012-13 to about below 73% now. The share of NRI and foreign tourists have remained steady at 2%. However, it seems Gujarat has a long way to go to emerge as a destination for leisure tourism. Tourists coming for business purpose continue to dominate with a share of 52.93% of total inbound tourists, followed by tourists coming for pilgrimage purpose, which constitute 38.61% of total tourists, while leisure tourists still have a meager share of just over 7%.

Expert Speak

We've increased the budget for tourism manifold. We've redeveloped many tourist destinations. More hotels are coming up. The government organises Patangotsav, Rannotsav and a number of other events. We're also developing heritage tourism. All these efforts put together have increased the flow of tourists from other states to Gujarat, said Ganpat Vasava, tourism minister, Gujarat.

Gujarat has to offer everything except snow. Gujarat has wildlife, sea coasts, hills, desert, heritage, pilgrimage places and even entertainment. No other state has such diverse offerings, said Manish Sharma, founder and director, Axar Travels.