Category Archives: States

Tamil Nadu has surfaced as the leading tourist destination for domestic travellers. As per the India Tourism Statistics – 2021, Tamil Nadu emerged as the state with the highest percentage of visitors. The state’s share hovered at 23 percent, followed by Uttar Pradesh with a visitor share of 14.1%. The data reflected the number of visitors that Tamil Nadu entertained in the year 2020. As per the report, Tamil Nadu, in 2020, had roughly 14 crore domestic visitors, whereas the second leading state in domestic tourism, Uttar Pradesh, had around 8.6 crore visitors 2020.

PATA India Chapter showcased Kerala as a destination in its ‘Jewels of India’ webinar, where Krishna Teja IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism, said that 2022 can be the year of Kerala Tourism. “This is because we have lined up a series of adventure activities and festivals across the year,” he said.

Dr Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint MD, Directorate of Tourism, Maharashtra, reveals that the DoT is coming up with a tour operators’ accreditation policy. “It is in the final stage and we will start offering it from July 2022. On registering with us, these operators will get a lot of benefits like presence on our website, participation in international and domestic roadshows with us, famils, use of our logo, ad incentives, etc,” he says.

The transport department of Delhi issued 4,286 International Driving Permits (IDP) from February till June 7. In fact, in June alone, they issued 439 IDPs to residents of Delhi who had moved abroad to study, work, and other business purposes. Of the international permits issued this year, 1,150 were issued for the United States and 986 were issued for Canada.

Anjit Mukherjee, Deputy Manager, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat said with the celebrations of Rann Utsav in November-December this year, Gujarat anticipates to reach pre-pandemic levels. He further added that Gujarat never took a pause and has been continuously working on promoting itself even during the pandemic. 

Speaking about future plans, Dr Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint Director, Directorate of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, revealed, “We have created a Responsible Tourism policy for the state because we are seeing instances of over-tourism, land pollution and even water shortages where tourist footfalls are high. This will help is disperse tourists to adjoining places, reduce impact on environment and channelize benefits to the local communities. This policy is already ready; some government level decisions are pending. Hopefully we will release it soon.”

In an elderly-friendly decision, Kerala Government has announced 50% concession for senior citizens in entry fee in all state-run tourism centres. Tourism Minister PA Mohamed Riyas said, “This is part of elderly friendly policies across all sectors in the state. This will encourage the senior citizens to mix with the society.” The Kozhikode Human Rights Forum had made a submission before the Assembly Committee urging it to consider the possibility of giving concession in entry fee for senior citizens in tourism centres. After studying the submission, the house panel recommended the Government that the request could be considered positively

The report titled ‘India’s Treasure Trove of Cultural Travel 2022’ by OYO said with over 3.5 times growth over the past year, Srinagar clocked the highest growth in bookings among cultural destinations in 2022. Besides Srinagar, Pahalgam and Jammu in J&K also ranked among the top cultural destinations in India 

After a day-long workshop conducted by West Bengal Tourism for industry, a detailed ideation was undertaken with officials led by Tourism Secretary. Dr. Saumitra Mohan. A milestone and timeline-based implementation roadmap will be put in place by the joint task force for subsequent consideration by the Government of West Bengal.

The hospitality sector is a critical part of the tourism industry. COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on Maharashtra, and the state government has been taking concrete steps to revive the tourism industry. In this regard, the Maharashtra government had announced that from 1 April 2021, hotels in the state registered with the Union Ministry of Tourism to be charged an industrial rate for electricity, seed fee, water tax, property tax, development tax, increased carpet area index, and non-agricultural tax. Hotels that are not registered with the Union Ministry of Tourism will be charged tax at the industrial rate only after meeting the stipulated criteria for attaining basic minimum standards. The state government also established an expert committee for this cause and also ensured that the process of meeting the criteria is completed within the duration of two months. Following that, hotels that meet the conditions for the online application process are levied taxes and fees at the industrial rate. The state government issued this decision in compliance with the approval given at the cabinet meeting on 5 November 2020. The mechanism in place is assisting in the growth of hospitality businesses by providing industry status in a fast and effective manner, as well as promoting sustainable practices.