Gujarat to come up with heritage tourism policy; expects 6 crore tourists this fiscal

Akshardham Temple, Gujarat

The Gujarat government is planning to come up with a heritage tourism policy, while focusing on attracting foreign tourists, said Jenu Devan, Managing Director & Commissioner of Tourism, Gujarat Tourism.

The state has registered 14 per cent growth in the number of tourists in 2018-19. In 2016-17, tourists’ inflow was 4.48 crore and the same went up to almost 5.8 crore in 2018-19. The annual growth rate was 14 per cent. With the trend of increasing tourists’ footfalls, we are expecting that tourist inflow should cross six crore in the current fiscal. About six lakh foreign tourists visit the state last year.

“The state is preparing a heritage tourism policy and approval for this will come shortly. At present, there are 33 heritage properties. With the implementation of the policy, more of such properties will come within tourism map. Two prominent tourist sites – Somnath and Dholavira – would be developed into iconic tourism destinations as a part of the Central government’s Swadesh Darshan Scheme,” said Jenu Devan.