Gujarat’s aggressive policy to develop the state as a tourism destination is only matched by the world’s strategy to woo the Gujarati tourist.
Gujarat government has earmarked 350 crore this year for infrastructure and development of tourism in the state.
Managing director and Commissioner Anoop Shukla of Gujarat Tourism says: “Our aim is to make Gujarat a leading global tourist destination.” The state, which has managed to rope in none other than Amitabh Bachchan to promote tourism, is now gearing up to develop Saputara as a modern hill station at an investment of 150 crore to attract both domestic and foreign travellers.
The state has drawn up an ambitious plan to attract investments of 48,000 crore in the tourism sector by 2020. The plan has been prepared by Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board.
About 18,000 crore is estimated to be in over the next two to three years. The state government will spend 3,000 crore and the rest will come from the private sector.
The government has set up the Gujarat Tourism Project Development Company (GTPDCL) in collaboration with IL&FS. GTPDCL will undertake project development for about 50 projects that require investments between 10 to 200 crore.
Gujarat will announce a new tourism policy in October. It is expected to bring in a number of relaxations to boost tourism infrastructure development in the state, including development of tourism zones and simplified processes for clearances.
Top pullers
With the growth in industrialisation in Gujarat, business tourism has emerged as the top tourism segment.
According to Gujarat Tourism secretary, Vipul Mittra, “MICE is the new upcoming sector globally and Gujarat is also being promoted as a MICE destination. Working towards that, the Global Investor’s Summit 2011 would be held at Mahatma Mandir, which will be a world class convention centre. GTPDCL is also focusing on bringing public private partnerships for MICE.”
Religious Tourism
Corporate tourism is followed by religious tourism. CEO Ranjit Parmar of Palaces of India, Camps of India, Green Nature Trail Resorts, says, “Somnath, Dwaraka and Ambaji bring in a huge number of domestic tourists to Gujarat every year.
No wonder than the government is trying to give religious tourism a boost with the various projects like Sant Nagri and the Buddhist circuit.” Hill-top shrines like Ambaji, Palitana, Girnar and Pavagadh are similarly steeped in legend and celebrated in history.
New segments
Shukla says, “The government is looking to develop wildlife tourism, adventure tourism and beach tourism with the help of various public private partnerships. The beaches are being looked at as great potential market with about 2600kms of virgin coastlines waiting to be developed.” Already they have identified 14 beachcoastal sites and proposals for PPP have been floated.
Currently the state government and travel bodies are looking to design existing properties as per their customer’s needs. As Bimal Shah, Chairman of the Gujarat chapter of ADTOI points out, “Variety of village properties, resorts, five star hotels and heritage properties are presently being renovated to attract the international tourist.
Event-based tourism
Gujarat government is promoting tourism in the state through its many fairs and festivals. So be it the Rann Utsav which has been extended to a month from three days this year, the Tarnetar fair, world famous Navratri, or the Kite festival, event based tourism has always seen huge national and international participation and success.
Mittra says, “This year the government is also organising an International Bird Festival in Khijadia in November 2010 where ornithologists and bird enthusiasts from all around the world will come for a three-day conference.”
Big plans
Befitting their aggressive marketing policies the Gujarat government has chosen Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for Gujarat Tourism. A special advertising campaign has been created with him to promote Gujarat.
Ranjit Parmar agrees this will boost tourism in Gujarat. According to Imtiyaz Munshi, from Akshar travels, “Ongoing projects by the government include river front project in Ahmedabad, heritage awareness projects across the states and organising a number of travel and tourism fares round the year.”
Road shows by the government across the country are also a popular medium to propagate the investment possibilities in the state.
Infrastructure
The state government is also working on developing 11 airports in the state. Shukla says: “Gujarat has only about 58 hotels with 2,695 hotel rooms. The government is looking to increase these with the help of private players.
Each city will have a tourism master plan earmarking hotel sites and government land on long-term lease. The government is providing the basic infrastructure to the investors and asking them to invest right now because the land prices are likely to increase in just about the next two years”.
The government is looking to market Gujarat to the world tourism industry as a ‘brand’. Shukla says, “The government is identifying investment opportunities for private sector participation in the tourism segment.
The government is looking for new opportunities for developing tourism along the Gujarat coast, its desert, and its festivals, the Buddhist circuit and the Indus Valley civilisation.”
The Gujarati as a traveller
The presence of vegetarian, even Jain food at destinations as varied as Kerala, Bangkok and Kyoto is a testimony to the Gujarati traveller. Manish Sharma, chairman of the Gujarat Tourism Development Society, says: “Most Gujaratis are outbound tourists. Europe, USA, South East Asia are their hot favourites. ”
Indian states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu are now creating domestic tour packages for Gujarati travellers. In 2009, Gujarat which sent out 15.9million tourists was amongst the top 10 states in terms of number of domestic tourist visits. The list was topped by Andhra Pradesh at 157.5million.
But the strength is not in numbers alone. Gujaratis are being wooed also because they have a propensity to spend more. Bimal Mehta, the chairman of the Gujarat Chapter, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, says that Gujarat sends out one of the highest number of travellers within and outside the country.
“Their spending power is also quite high as they believe in enjoying to the core during a holiday. Most Gujaratis take at least two vacations in a year. Depending on their budgets, the location and the occasion, the duration may vary,” he says.
In a recent survey conducted during a three-day Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF) held in the Ahmedabad, one-third of the respondents showed interest in travelling abroad with an average budget of 80,000, whereas two-thirds were looking for destinations within the country with average spending limit of around 18,000.
Also, 71% of the respondents travelled at least once in a year and 39% travelled twice.
Domestic tourist
Gujaratis love to travel to places where they can drive in just about four to five hours. Says Ranjit Singh Parmar, CEO, Palaces of India, Camps of India, Green Nature Trail Resorts, “Udaipur in Rajasthan and destinations in Madhya Pradesh are the most preferred.”
Seasonal travel is an important aspect of domestic travel for the Gujarati. So while they prefer going to the hills of Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir and Mount Abu in the summers, they prefer Kerala and Madhya Pradesh during the winters.
Sharma says, “There has been a massive increase of 52% from last five year in the number of tourists travelling within the state. With the latest developments this number will only increase.” Mehta points to a very interesting trend that the Gujarati traveller follows.
“We have seen an interesting six-year cyclic pattern for any new destination. Once a Gujarati visits a particular place he comes back and tells his friends about it so the number of Gujaratis visiting the same place in the second year increases.
The trend continues with the maximum tourists visiting the place in the third and fourth year and the number dipping thereafter. After six years, we observe that Gujarati travellers discover and explore a new place.”
Weekend travel
Weekend travel is still very nascent in Gujarat. Mehta says, “Gujaratis prefer going out of Gujarat for weekends. Weekend travel needs a lot development. Infrastructure, including new hotels need to come up.”
Mehta says that the Gujarat government can do much to boost weekend travel by first pitching a few destinations and getting hotels to come and invest.
“As of now Gir, Kutch and Palikana are the most popular weekend destinations in Gujarat both for the Gujarati, other domestic and foreign travellers.
Udaipur and Mount Abu in Rajasthan are the other places a Gujarati goes to for the weekend or shorter vacations. Also pilgrim travel is quite big in Gujarat with Somnath, Dwarka and Ambikaji being the most preferred places,” he says.
MICE
The presence of large corporates such as the Tata, Reliance, Adani and Nirma and many SMEs, ensures that MICE tourism is gaining popularity in Gujarat.
Parmar says: “MICE is dependent on the facilities that can be provided given to the corporate travellers. Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat and Rajkot are the four hubs for corporate tourism. You can find leisure-based corporate tourism or incentive packages in places such as Gir and Kutch.”
Stakeholders say that the biggest hurdle for this segment is the alcohol prohibition in the state.
Mehta says, “The government has taken steps by giving out permits but they need to look at a permanent solution. These permits can be obtained only for outsiders. Gujarati businessmen prefer going out of state for their meetings and conferences, which means that we ultimately lose out on business.”
T2 Terminal and visitors
The new international terminal T2 became operational in Ahmedabad from September 15, 2010 with the first Indian Airlines flight going to Muscat. The new terminal is built on the lines of famous Changi airport and will also have an underground link with the domestic terminal across the road.
The new airport will have capacity to handle 12 flights and 2200 passengers during peak hours. Built over 40000sqm, this airport can accommodate 30 big aircrafts. It has seven boarding gates and four aero bridges.
Ahmedabad could very well be a choice for several international airlines to develop their hub in wake of tremendous load on Mumbai International airport. It is only one hour flying distance away from Mumbai and quite strategically located in terms of geography.
Today Emirates, Air India, Qatar Airways and Etihad fly out to international destinations directly from Ahmedabad.
There are 10 airports in Gujarat, one of which is an international one. All the airports in Gujarat are connected to all the major cities in India, like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, etc. Indian Airlines, Air India, Air Sahara, Jet Airways, Spice Jet, Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan operate from these airports.
The total number of domestic visitors to Gujarat in 2009-2010 were 16.7 million, compared to 0.3 million international visitors during the same period.
