Around 400 million domestic tourists had also travelled across different parts of the country during 2007, she said.
She was speaking after declaring open the Rs 35 crore 'Zest Big Beach-Puducherry' a project of the Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Limited (MHRIL) at Manapet coastal village near here.
Puducherry will emerge in the near future as a major centre for cruise tourism and efforts to promote this project would be intensified in collaboration with the Union Shipping Ministry, she said.
"We should work together to make Puducherry as a major destination as was done in respect of Sikkim and Goa and other destinations. In the near future Puducherry would emerge as a centre for cruise tourism", she said. Around 74 heritage sites had been identified in Puducherry and "we should look at the best of them for promotion and restoration for the benefit of the people here", she said.
The Auroville International Project and Sri Aurobindo Ashram here were adding to richness, the legacy and also full-fledged projection of Puducherry as a destination.
"There had been lot of questions and eager enquiries about Auroville in different parts of the world from information seekers as they want to visit Auroville to have a new experiment in India", she said.
