By our correspondent, Gandhinagar, 1 April 2013

Chief Minister Narendra Modi today asserted that Gujarat’s march of tourism would continue for ever, offering a variety of vibrant places from the ancient Dholavira to futuristic Dholera SIR, with spiritual centres for all, including Hinduism, Parsi, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.

Inaugurating ‘Gujarat Travel Mart’ being arranged by Gujarat Government for the last three years, he said the number of tourists coming to the state has increased by 54-lakh over the last two years to 2.25-crore. He said that while tourism in India has grown by 7 per cent, that in Gujarat by 16 per cent.

He said that his government accords top priority to tourism, true to India’s tradition of ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’, treating guests as godly as its budget allocation has increased from Rs.30-crore in 2004 to Rs.500-crore now, particularly after the state observed 2006 as the Year of Tourism. The world’s attention has been drawn to Gujarat’s potentials in tourism, as reflected in the world famous ‘Lonely Planet’ magazine.

Even as Gujarat emerged as one of the most favourite tourist destination, he said the state has a variety of vibrant socio-religious-spiritual places for tourists, besides developing novel concepts of kid’s tourism and farm tourism. The state has migratory birds’ sanctuary at Thol and Nal Sarovar, several wildlife sanctuaries, and marine tourism like whale sharks along its long coast, eco tourism at Saputara and Aravalli Hills in the predominantly tribal areas. Gujarat hosted global bird watchers conference last year. It has several locations for shooting feature films.

Mr. Modi recalled how Kutch which was once known for good-for-nothing Rann is now throbbing with industrial development. The vast stretches of silvery sands in the Banni region bordering Pakistan which didn’t grow even a blade of grass has now become a centre of Rann Utsav to let tourists enjoy moonlit nights in the winter season. The Gurudwara at Lakhpat in Kutch is a major Sikh religious centre.

He said the Agiyari at Udwada in south Gujarat would be developed as a major socio-cultural centre for the Parsi community. He said that recent discovery of Buddhist relics at Dev-ni-Mori and Vadnagar has prompted the Gujarat Government to connect these places through a Buddhist tourist circuit.

Nearly 800 delegates and 125 tourism, tour and travel sector operators and their associations engaged in hospitality sector from 15 states in India and 32 countries are participating in the two-day event, considered to be India’s biggest B2B event of tours and travels agents.

Earlier welcoming the guests and delegates, Tourism Minister Saurabh Patel gave details of the event and spoke about the tourism industry’s exponential growth in Gujarat due to farsighted leadership of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) Managing Director Sanjay Kaul spoke on the occasion. Prominent among those present included TCGL Chairman Kamlesh Patel, Chief Minister’s Additional Chief Secretary K. Kailashnathan and Tourism Secretary Vipul Mittra.

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