Tourism Report among Indian States in 2013

Tamil Nadu became the state most visited by domestic tourists in 2013, dislodging Andhra Pradesh from the position, and finished second after Maharashtra in the number of foreign tourist visits. The annual data released by the Union Tourism Ministry revealed that the foreign tourist visits in 2013 increased by over 9 percent. The total number of foreign tourist visits was 19.95 million as compared to 18.26 million in 2012 and 19.50 million in 2011. In 2012, the number of foreign tourist visits had dropped.

The data released by the Tourism Ministry said that, in 2013, the number of foreign tourist visits to states registered a growth of 9.24 percent over 2012 as compared to a negative growth of 6.3 percent in 2012 over 2011.

The top 10 states in terms of the number of foreign tourist visits in 2013 were Maharashtra (4.16 million), Tamil Nadu (3.99 million), Delhi (2.30 million), Uttar Pradesh (2.05 million), Rajasthan (1.44 million), West Bengal (1.25 million), Kerala (0.86 million), Bihar (0.77 million), Karnataka (0.64 million) and Goa (0.49 million). The contribution of the top 10 states to the total number of foreign tourist visits in the country was about 89.9 percent. The top positions remained the same except for the 10th position where Goa unseated Himachal Pradesh.

And visits by domestic tourists increased by nearly 10 percent in 2013. The number of domestic tourist visits was 1,145 million compared to 1,045 million in 2012 and 865 million in 2011. The top 10 states in terms of the number of domestic tourist visits were Tamil Nadu (244.2 million), Uttar Pradesh (226.5 million), Andhra Pradesh (152.1 million), Karnataka (98.0 million), Maharashtra (82.7 million), Madhya Pradesh (63.1 million), Rajasthan (30.3 million), Gujarat (27.4 million), West Bengal (25.5 million) and Chhattisgarh (22.8 million). The contribution of the top 10 states to the total number of domestic tourist visits in 2013 was about 84.9 percent.

Tamil Nadu has occupied the first rank in terms of domestic tourist visits in 2013, rising from the second rank. Andhra Pradesh fell to the third rank while Uttar Pradesh moved up to the second place. Another significant change was in Chhattisgarh which moved to the 10th place from the 16th position. And Uttarakhand which was in 8th position in 2012 couldn’t find a place among the top 10 states.

Tourist Arrivals in India - 2013
	Foreign Tourist Arrivals	Domestic Tourist Arrivals
1	Maharashtra	Tamil Nadu
2	Tamil Nadu	Uttar Pradesh
3	Delhi	Andhra Pradesh
4	Uttar Pradesh	Karnataka
5	Rajasthan	Maharashtra
6	West Bengal	Madhya Pradesh
7	Kerala	Rajasthan
8	Bihar	Gujarat
9	Karnataka	West Bengal
10	Goa	Chhattisgarh