NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu retained the top position among all states in getting domestic tourists during the year 2014, while Uttar Pradesh was at second place. Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh that was at number third position fell to number five, due its bifurcation. Now, Karnataka and Maharashtra have come at 3rd and 4th position. Telengana was at 6th rank.
Ironically, in case of foreign tourists’ visits, Goa which was at 10th position among all states in 2013, was replaced by Haryana.
The union tourism ministry on Tuesday released data on domestic tourist visits during the last year. During 2014, the number of domestic tourist visits to the States was 1282 million, an increase from 1145 million in 2013 and 1045 million in 2012. This signified a growth of 11.93% over 2013 as compared to growth of 9.59% in 2013 over 2012.
In terms of numbers, the top ten 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 top 10 States was about 83.28% to the total number of domestic tourist visits during 2014. Madhya Pradesh has slipped to rank 7th in 2014 from rank 6th in 2013 where as West Bengal has improved to rank 8th in 2014 from rank 9th in 2013. The significant jump has been for Jharkhand that entered into top category with a 9th rank 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 top ten 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 tourist 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% over 2013 as compared to a growth of 9.24% in 2013 over 2012.