HYDERABAD: For long, tourism has been prohibitively expensive for many. Today, it has become a way of life, especially for Millenials. The rising number of tourists visiting Telangana has increased by quite a bit over the past few years. According to travel agents and industry experts, a lot of this growth can be attributed to women travellers.
According to the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC), the number of international arrivals in the State was 3.18 lakh in 2018; it was just only 75,171 in 2014. The number of domestic tourists was 8.52 crore in 2017; it rose to 9.28 crore in 2018.
B Manohar, Managing Director of TSTDC said, “In the last few years, there has been a steady rise in the percentage of women tourists, travelling with their friends or going solo. In Telangana, we have seen an increase of 10-12 per cent. A lot of these women tourist groups come from countries such as Japan and Nepal to visit heritage sites in Hyderabad. Indian women groups to visit the city.”
Many of these travellers, it is learnt, stay in homestays, preferring them over hotels. Homestays such as Eden Homestay in Gandhi Nagar and Sai Nivas in Somajiguda have been seeing more women customers off late. People working in the tourism industry also claim that women participation is not only limited to a rise in the number of travellers, but also to opportunities for them.