Domestic tourism registers impressive growth

Despite economic recession, Indian domestic tourism registered an impressive growth of more than 15% in 2009. Data compiled by the Tourism Ministry suggested that the number of domestic tourist visits to the states and Union Territories (UTs) was 650 million as compared to 563 million in 2008 and 527 million in 2007. With 157.5 million travellers, Andhra Pradesh topped the list of states followed by Uttar Pradesh (134.8 million) and Tamil Nadu (115.8).The number of domestic tourist visits registered an increase of 15.5% over 2008 as compared to increase of 6.9% in 2008 over 2007.

Other states in the top ten list included Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Gujarat and the contribution of these states was about 88% to the total domestic tourist visits in 2009.

During 2009, the number of foreign tourist visits to the states and UTs was 13.7 million as compared to 14.1 million in 2008 and 13.3 million in 2007.The top ten states in terms of number of foreign tourist visits during 2009 were Tamil Nadu with 2.37 million, closely followed by Maharashtra and Delhi with 2 and 1.96 million respectively.Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh also figured in the top ten list in terms of foreign tourist visits.