NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu has retained the top position among all states in getting domestic tourists during 2014, while Uttar Pradesh was second. Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh that was in third position fell to fifth, due to its bifurcation. Now, Karnataka and Maharashtra have come to third and fourth position. Telengana was ranked sixth.
Ironically, in case of foreign tourists’ visits, Goa, which was in 10th position among all states in 2013, was replaced by Haryana.
The Union Tourism Ministry on Tuesday released the data on domestic tourist visits during last year. During 2014, the number of domestic tourist visits to the states was 1,282 million, an increase from 1,145 million in 2013 and 1,045 million in 2012. This signified a growth of 11.93 per cent over 2013 as compared to 9.59 per cent in 2013 over 2012.
In terms of numbers, the top 10 performing states for domestic tourists in 2014 were Tamil Nadu (327.6 million), Uttar Pradesh (182.8 m), Karnataka (118.3m), Maharashtra (94.1m), Andhra Pradesh (93.3m), Telengana (72.4m), Madhya Pradesh (63.6m), West Bengal (49 m) Jharkhand (33.4 m) and Rajasthan (33.1 m).
“The contribution of the top 10 States was about 83.28 per cent to the total number of domestic tourists visits during 2014. Madhya Pradesh had slipped to seventh place in 2014 from rank sixth in 2013 whereas West Bengal has improved to eighth place in 2014 from being ranked ninth in 2013. The significant jump has been for Jharkhand that entered into the top category with the 9th position in 2014, up from 14th in 2013,” officials said.
In terms of the foreign tourist visits to different states in 2014, the top position was retained by Tamil Nadu.
The 10 States in terms of number of foreign tourists visits during 2014 were Tamil Nadu (4.66 million), Maharashtra (4.39 m), Uttar Pradesh (2.91 m), Delhi (2.32 m), Rajasthan (1.53 m), West Bengal (1.38m), Kerala (0.92 m), Bihar (0.83 m), Karnataka (0.56 m) and Haryana (0.55 m).
Overall, during 2014, the number of foreign tourists visits to the states was 22.57 million as compared to 19.95 million in 2013 and 18.26 million in 2012 - thus showing a growth of 13.12 per cent over 2013 as compared to a growth of 9.24 per cent in 2013 over 2012.