Tamil Nadu emerges as hot tourist destination

Chennai: Tamil Nadu has caught the attention of foreign tour­ism boards which are vying with one another to lure more visitors from the state, particularly Che­n­n­ai.­ The year saw many packing their backpacks to explore exotic overseas des­tinations in spite of the depreciating value of the rupee.

Increased air connectivity and low airfares are among the reasons triggering outbound travel while a tranquil Tamil Nadu has been attracting more footfalls.

The state is set to surpass 18.77 crore footfalls, including 35.62 lakh forei­gn­ers, received in 2012. Some projects, like the TN Maritime Heritage Muse­um envisaged by Chief Minister J. Jaya­lalithaa, the Oceanarium and massive Asian Deve­lopment Bank (ADB) initiatives, would further inc­rease the arrival of foreign and do­m­estic tourists besi­des en­ha­ncing foreign ex­change revenue and fostering em­p­l­oyment opportunities.

The Maritime Museum project, coming up at the heritage coastal town of Mamallapuram near here, is expected to be completed by 2015. It will be a major attraction in the coming years.

Principal Secretary of Tourism and Culture R. Kannan who, along with Tourism Min­i­s­ter S. P. Shan­muga­nathan, visited the INS Kursura Sub­marine Mu­s­e­um in Vi­sa­k­h­a­­pa­t­nam, studied the modal­ities of establi­sh­ing a second one like it in the country and the 14th such in the world with INS Vagli.

It will have two components: a submarine museum and a maritime history museum.

“The massive infrastructure developm­e­n­t, road improvement, hotels across all categories coming up in the state, growth of medical tour­ism, industrial investment and a peaceful atmo­s­­phere in Tamil Nadu have helped bolster tourism in a big way,” says Hemant Kumar Sinha, Commissioner of Tourism.

Besides the five UN­E­S­C­O­­­­ declared World Heritage Sites in the state, the Tourism Department pla­ns to get five more on the list, namely, the Sri Ran­ganathaswamy Tem­ple, Srirangam, Pulica­t­ Fort, Fort St. George, Chet­t­­inad rural cluster and Kazhu­gu­malai rock-cut Jain temp­les.­

The State government has proposed to ensure a Rs 10,000-crore investment in the tourism sector in the next eight to ten years to attract 15 million For­e­ign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) to the state in 2023, a challenging jump from the present 3.5 million FTA.

Most of the Rs 500 crore works taken up by the ADB have been targeted to be completed before 2016 whereby important tourist destinations, like Maha­balipuram, Kan­ch­e­­e­­pu­ram­­,­ Picha­varam, Na­ga­pattinam, Tran­quebar, Ra­m­­­­es­­­waram, Tir­u­­nel­veli­, Sri­­vai­­ku­ntam, Tir­uchi, Sr­i­­­ran­gam, Ooty, Kod­ai­­k­an­al­, Yelagiri, Vellore, Pudu­kottai and Karai­kudi, would be developed.

Also, for the first time, ramps would be built and battery-operated cars used for the benefit of the differ­ently abled in prominent tourist destinations.

During 2011 the state received a total of 14.01 crore tourists including 13,­67,­50,750 (in cr) dom­es­tic tourists and 33,08,438 FTA, 2012: 18,76,98,580 tourists including 18,41,­36,840 domestic and 35,61,­740 FTA and in 2013 (upto October end): 17,56,39,143 tourists including 17,25,­57,688 domestic and 30,81,­455 FTAs.

While the travel and tourism industry felt the pinch of the economic dow­n­turn last year, it is opti­­mistic that the situation will change for the better next year.

The Indian outbound market is expected to reach the 50-million-traveller mark by 2020. The major travel trends in the coming year are from segments such as students, women, luxury and experiential holidays, say experts.