Kolkata: In spite of worldwide recession and financial stringency in many countries, India has experienced a growth of over 30 per cent in tourism sector this year.
According to Mr Yusuf Poonawala, vice president of India’s leading Travel organiser Cox and Kings during the current year over 450 million Indians had visited different parts of the country during holidays, while the number of Indians visited abroad was about 14 million during the festive seasons. Describing the current phenomenon as ‘beyond expectation’, Mr Poonawala said compared to last year more than 30 per cent Indians had visited different tourist destinations of the country during the first nine months of the current fiscal. The number of Indians going abroad to spent holidays was also increasing by leaps and bounds with more and more countries opening their doors for small time visitors through attractive tour packages, said Mr Poonawala.
Elaborating their plants to participate in the growth story, he said Cox and Kings in association with the Gujarat government and the Gujarat Tourism had announced a number of packages, suitable for all pockets, to promote the famous Rann Utsav in the Kutch region of the state during December 15 to 31.
During the fullmoon night of the winter, a three-day festival extravaganza had been organised on the desert sand for the tourists and we had been receiving overwhelming response from across the country and abroad, claimed Mr Poonawala.
On whether they were planning to organise similar package tours in any other state including West Bengal, Odisha or in the North East, Mr Poonawala responded in the positive.
There was also a great scope of growth of tourism in eastern India, he said but emphasied the need to improve the logistics and infrastructural facilities in popular tourist destinations. (UNI)