Chhattisgarh has once again failed to find a place among top 10 States in maximum domestic tourist arrivals during 2015-16, according to the latest data released by the Centre.
Notably, the Market Research Division of the Union Ministry of Tourism compiles data on domestic and foreign tourist visits to States/Union Territories (UTs) received from Tourism Departments of various States and UTs.
During 2015, the top 10 States with maximum domestic tourist visits (in millions) were: Tamil Nadu (333.5), Uttar Pradesh (204.9), Andhra Pradesh (121.6), Karnataka (119.9), Maharashtra (103.4), Telangana (94.5), Madhya Pradesh (78), West Bengal (70.2), Gujarat(36.3) and Rajasthan (35.2). Total domestic tourist visits to the States/ UTs was 1,432 million in the country as compared to 1,282.8 million in 2014, a growth of 11.63 per cent.
The contribution of top 10 States was about 83.62 per cent to the total domestic tourist visits during 2015.
Tamil Nadu and UP have maintained the first and second rank respectively in 2015. Andhra has gained the third position leaving Karnataka and Maharashtra at fourth and fifth positions respectively. MP and West Bengal have retained their previous rankings of seventh and eighth. Gujarat, showing significant improvement has risen to ninth leaving Rajasthan at the tenth, making Jharkhand slip out of the top 10.
In 2015, while the top 4 States retained their previous rankings, West Bengal improved by one rank to leave Rajasthan at sixth. Kerala, Bihar and Karnataka retained their ranks at seventh, eighth and ninth and Goa re-entered the top 10 most visited states causing Haryana to drop out of the ranks. Chhattisgarh also figured nowhere in the annual tourist arrival data of top 10 states released by Market Research Division of the Union Ministry of Tourism for 2014-15. During 2014-15, the number of domestic tourist visits to States/UTs registered a growth of 11.93% over 2013 as compared to growth of 9.59% in 2013 over 2012.