Assam, Tripura still favourite destinations
SHILLONG: Meghalaya has witnessed a sharp increase in number of foreign tourists visiting the state, but Assam, Sikkim and Tripura are still the favourite destinations as far as the foreign tourists are concerned.
As per Government statistics, a total of 6773 foreign tourists visited Meghalaya in 2013 followed by 8664 in 2014 and 8027 in 2015
The statistics said that in 2013 800 foreign tourists visited Mizoram and the number increased to 921 in 2014. But in 2015 the number came down to 798.
Similarly, 3304, 2585 and 2769 foreign tourists visited Nagaland in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Manipur also witnessed jump in number foreign tourist visiting the state. In 2013 a total of 1908 foreign tourists visited Manipur. Subsequently in 2014 and 2015, the number went up to 2769 and 3260 respectively.
As many as 10,846 foreign tourists visited Arunachal Pradesh in 2010 but the number came down drastically to 5204 in 2014. In 2015, there was a marginal jump with 5705 tourists visiting the state.
17638 foreign tourists visited Assam in 2013 and the number increased to 21537 in 2014 and it further increased to 24,720 in 2015.
Among North Eastern states, Sikkim seems to be the most favourite destination for foreign tourists as it host the most number of foreign tourists in the last three years.
In the year 2013, Sikkim hosted 31,698 foreign tourists and the number increased to 49,175 in 2014. But in 2015, the number of visitors to the state went down to 38,479.
Tripura is also emerging a supreme destination for foreign tourist as last year 34886 foreign tourist visited the state from 11853 in 2013
As per the UNWTO Barometer (Volume 14, May 2016), during 2015, India ranks 40th in terms of International Tourists Arrivals.
The Ministry of Tourism, has also advised the State Governments to follow tourism friendly policies for augmenting hotel room supply like allotting land sites for hotels on revenue sharing basis, granting extra Floor Space Index for hotels, adopt Single Window approach for clearing hotel projects, rationalization of taxes, etc.
This information was given by Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State in charge Tourism and Culture in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.