GUJARAT TOURISM TO ACCREDIT AND PROMOTE PRIVATE PLAYERS
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Gujarat has initiated a unique model of public private partnership to further strength tourism growth in the region and offer better facilities to the tourists. Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) will be facilitating private tour operators from across the country, wherein they can register themselves with Gujarat Tourism as certified operators. Further to this, TCGL will also be offering facility of online booking of private hotels that will be registered with it.
Addressing the media in Mumbai, Kamlesh Patel, Chairman, TCGL said, “We will continue to aggressively market Gujarat as a tourist destination in India as well as abroad. To further strengthen our efforts in this direction we have introduced a PPP model whereby various tour operators both from within and outside of Gujarat can register and showcase their own packages with TCGL through its website.”
Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director, TCGL, stated, “Private tour operators from across the country can now register themselves with Gujarat Tourism as certified operators for Gujarat. This will help us to reach out to more number of potential tourists and also help the operators in availing timely information and facilities from TCGL. Another unique initiative from TCGL is the launch of industrial tours for students with an aim to showcase the industrial growth of Gujarat.”
The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL), has successfully attracted an increasing number of tourists, both domestic and foreign to the state of Gujarat. The gross tourist flow during the year 2013-14 was 287.88 lakhs which is 13.3 per cent higher than the flow in 2012-13.
Domestic tourism over the years has been outpacing the international tourism growth in India and Gujarat also strongly believes that if domestic tourism grows then international tourism will automatically flow in. Maharashtra continues to be the top state in India, from where Gujarat gets the maximum tourists (37 per cent) share and 22.47 lakh numbers in the last financial year, 2012-13.