Leisure tourist arrival up in Gujarat in FY15

While business tourists account for 59% of the net inflow, leisure tourism tops in growth rate

While the share of business travellers visiting the western Indian state of Gujarat is still high, in terms of growth rate, the leisure category has managed to beat business and spiritual travellers during 2014-15.

According to the Gujarat Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation Limited (GITCO), which manages the Tourist Flow Information System (TFIS) for the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL), while 19.2 million business travellers visited Gujarat during FY15, registering a 12.38 per cent growth, leisure travellers grew by 17.7 per cent to 2.4 million.

Business travellers account for nearly 59 per cent of the net tourist inflow in to this industrialised state, and the share has remained unchanged in FY15 from the previous year.

R M Patel, chief consultant, GITCO, "The business tourist segment dominates tourist inflow. However, there is an interesting growth in leisure tourists, especially Sasan, Saputara and white Rann have proven good destinations."

Spiritual tourists account for nearly 31 per cent of the tourist inflow at 10.2 million, growing by 16 per cent. Overall, tourist inflow to Gujarat has registered a 13.5 per cent growth to 32.6 million over 28.7 million in FY14.

Going by the origin of travellers, 75 per cent are people from within Gujarat at 24.5 million, while 7.4 million tourists from other Indian states visited Gujarat, up 23 per cent from 6 million tourists in Fy14.

While non-resident Indians who visited the state stood at 389,000, number of foreign tourists grew by 7 per cent to 245,000 individuals. One of the major draws for tourists coming to Gujarat is the white desert Rann. This year, the Rann Utsav, which spans the months of November to early March, saw a 61 per cent rise in tourist flow. A total of 190,551 people visited the Rann this season, up 61 per cent from 117,735 people in 2013-14.