Tamil Nadu is one among the top three States in attracting domestic and foreign tourists, according to the Economic Survey 2019-20.
Tabled in Parliament on Friday, the Survey, quoting the 2018 figures, mentioned Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra as the other two which were in the top league.
The three States along with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh accounted for nearly 65% of the total domestic tourists while they together with Delhi and Rajasthan recorded around 67% of the total foreign tourist visits.
E-tourist visa
In September 2014, the country introduced e-tourist visa for visitors from 46 countries, the arrangement of which was available for only 12 countries. Two years later, it liberalised the visa regime in 2016 and renamed it as e-visa scheme with five sub-categories — e-tourist visa, e-business visa, e-medical visa, e-conference visa and e-medical attendant visa.
The scheme is now available for 169 countries with valid entry through 28 designated airports and five designated seaports. With this, foreign tourist arrivals to India on e-visas went up from 4.45 lakh in 2015 to 23.69 lakh in 2018.
They stood at 21.75 lakh in January-October 2019, nearly 21% of the year-on-year growth from the previous year.
Employment share
The Economic Survey pointed out that the share of tourism employment in the State’s overall employment during the year 2015-16 was 6.36% for direct employment and 15.97% for direct and indirect. The corresponding figures for the other two toppers were: 4.46% and 11.39% for Uttar Pradesh and 5.46% and 17.74% for Karnataka.
The Policy Note of the State Tourism Department for 2019-20, which was placed on the floor of the Assembly in the middle of last year, stated that the arrival of both international and inbound tourists “increased considerably” during 2018 due to “well planned marketing strategy, involving tourism stakeholders to participate in domestic and international travel marts and also road shows.”
The Note added that for four years – 2014 to 2017, the Sate was ranked first in both the domestic and foreign tourist visits.
