Billed as the ‘Jewel of the West’, Gujarat has a rich blend of exotic locales, historical sites, wildlife, diverse culture, a 1,600- kilometre-long coastline, a vast desert area, religious places and pilgrimage centres like Dwarka, Somnath, Palitana, Pavaghad, Ambaji, Modhera Sun Temple, etc. But despite possessing such tourist attractions, Gujarat has not really been able to tap its vast tourism potential to the optimum.
In spite of the tourism sector being awarded ‘industry status’ by the Government and signing of mega star Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism, the state has not been able to cash in on these positives.
In terms of domestic tourists, Gujarat is currently at 8th position with 3 crore tourists visiting the state every year, and in terms of international tourists it is ranked 16th in India with 2.25 lakh international tourists.
Of course, Gujarat tourism’s popular marketing campaign “Khushboo Gujarat Ki” has certainly contributed to the tourist flow into the state, which was 32.7 million during 2014-15, which was 13.56% higher than that of the previous year. But considering the state’s vast richness and tourism potential, the visitor numbers should have been more. Tourism, at present, contributes 4% to 5% of the state's GDP.
This assumes significance when tourism body VisitBritain has forecast that the number of overseas visitors to the UK will hit a new record of 36.7 million in 2016, up by 3.8 per cent. If a small country like UK can boast of such huge tourist numbers, tourism-rich Gujarat should be having more footfalls. Many countries depend on tourism, some depend more. Tourism generates nearly 45% of British Virgin Islands' national income. Tourism accounts for 30% of Maldives' GDP; 13% of Croatia's GDP; 6.7% of Morocco's GDP; 16.3% of Malaysia's GDP; 8.5% of UAE's GDP; 10.9% of Singapore's GDP; and 5.4% of Spain's GDP.
