Rural heritage hotels are fast gaining popularity with tourists treading the unbeaten paths. Not only have these heritage properties given a new lease of life to these remote areas which are now abuzz with tourists but have also provided employment to the locals.
A Ministry of Tourism-conducted survey showed that the 105 rural heritage properties attracted close to 13 lakh tourists last year alone. The tourist footfall saw a growth of 4.06 per cent as compared to 2011. The revenue generated was over Rs 5.5 crore registering an annual growth of close to five per cent.
While the rural pockets of Rajasthan attracted over three lakh tourists to its 36 properties, the next popular rural tourism destination was Uttarakhand, which received 2.53 lakh footfalls in its seven properties.
Other popular off-beat destinations were Madhya Pradesh (2.12 lakh), followed by Kerala (1.46 lakh), Tamil Nadu (1.40 lakh) and Delhi (1.04 lakh).The market research wing of the Ministry had invited bids in 2011 for the survey of Impact of Heritage Hotels in the Country, with a focus on rural areas. The findings were presented to the Ministry last week.
In all, the Tourism Ministry has approved about 265 hotels as “heritage,” which have about 9,116 rooms. From 2007-08 till last year, these heritage properties received 32.6 lakh tourists. While the 56 classified heritage properties got about seven lakh visitors, the 209 non-classified heritage hotels got 25.6 lakh tourists.
The survey showed that the employment generated by these 265 heritage hotels is 11,343, of which 47 per cent of those employed is from the vicinity and the rest from the rural areas.
The total revenue generated by these heritage hotels in 2011-2012 was close to `11 crore, with the classified heritage hotels earnings close to `6.5 crore and non-classified heritage hotels making about `4.3 crore. The survey showed that the average revenue per room was `14.2 lakh.