International Journal of Environment, Ecology,
Family and Urban Studies (IJEEFUS)
ISSN 2250-0065
Vol. 3, Issue 2, Jun 2013, 57-68
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.
A STUDY OF CHANGING SCENARIO OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN GUJARAT
PAWAN K. SHUKLA1 & A. A. ANSARI
2
1Lecturer, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda,
Vadodara, Gujarat, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda,
Vadodara, Gujarat, India
ABSTRACT
Now a day tourism industry is becoming one of the important economic sectors, which impels the growth &
development of many of the parts of the world. Tourism provides a marketable product, which does not depend on raw
materials from outside. This paper highlights the changing dimensions of tourism industry in Gujarat. The Hospitality, the
foundation on which the edifice of Gujarat tourism built, is indigenous to Gujarat. The changing scenario from hospitality
to leisure, recreation, nature-based ecotourism, environmental, sports etc. are the major features, that makes Gujarat is one
of the important destinations among other states of India notably Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Historically the Gujarat
remained one of the most important tourist destinations among the coastal region of India. From Gujarat every year a huge
number of tourists visit other corners of the world, but its strength to be host is not yet been fully utilized due to the lack of
information highway. Gujarat a mosaic of landforms with various relief features varying in ages starting from pre-cambrian
to recent is a unique landscape endowed with. It offers colourful experience to its travelers packed with pleasant surprises,
endowed with forest & deserts, hills & plains, seas & lakes, tribal hinterlands & special interest destination with a strong
rail, roads, & air networks. The areas where more consideration is required are the poor infrastructure, ineffectual
marketing & efficient management of resource which may ensure the tourist wonder. The Government policies are been
introduced to eradicate the problems associated, but still not implemented. Recently the government of Gujarat has taken
various steps to develop tourism in Gujarat, one of that is making, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, as a grand ambassador to speed
up the process of tourism development in Gujarat, which has worked up to some extent but not up to the mark. The visit of
Mr. Bachchan has opens up to major loopholes in the infrastructure development. Most of tourism planning in the region
appears to be ad hoc. Therefore it is essential to move away from such an ad hoc approach to draw up definite plans of
action, charting out the future directions clearly.
KEYWORDS: Tourism Industry, Nature-Based Ecotourism, Recreation
INTRODUCTION
Today, in the world the tourism industry is the fastest and largest growing industry in the world. The concept of
travel & tourism in Gujarat started a long date back ago, when Portuguese people entered through the gateway of India
(Surat, Gujarat) and developed trade in India. Since then the State is receiving innumerable number of tourists for different
purposes. During the medieval times, Surat, Bharuch and Khambhat, which were among the most active ports of the 52
which existed in Gujarat-had many traders sailing out with fine silk and spices to Thailand’s shores. Tourism is the act of
travel for the purpose of recreation and business, and the provision of services for this act. People travel, doing so, stay
outside their usual environment for certain period of time for leisure, business and other purposes. It actually includes the
movement of people for all purpose. Earlier the tourism was concentrated only to the visit outside of residential areas,
58 Pawan K. Shukla & A. A. Ansari
while the 21st century tourism concept incorporates their more meaningful activities. Tourism today does not linger only to
economic resource development, but it also includes social and political harmonious relations among people as well as
countries and also more meaningfully to the natural world.
The impact of tourists visit in the destination area and interacting with the local people, itself results in both the
quantitative and qualitative resource development. During their stay in the destination, tourists interact with local residents
and the outcome of their relationship is, the changes in the host individual’s and the host community’s quality of life, value
systems, labour divisions, family relationships, attitudes, behavioral pattern, ceremonies and creative expressions (Fox,
1977; Cohen, 1984; Pizam & Milman, 1984). Interactions of tourists do not end here, rather it has multi-facet and has its
implication on the natural surroundings as well. Tourism is a commercial organization dealing with operating, holding & a
visit to places of interest. It is a major socio-cultural phenomena of the new age society & is related with economic
mobility and thereby several consequences. As tourism is a highly competitive industry; the traveler has a wide range of
choices and looks for good value for money1. At present changing scenario of the tourism required more activity oriented
tourist destinations, where people do not only enjoy by watching but also can participate in various games, sports,
adventures, cultural activity etc. Various ways of marketing strategies are taken into consideration to attract tourists,
especially in Gujarat. The various types of professional planning such as spatial and landuse planning, strict architectural
controls etc. are being carried out for appropriate facilitation of services.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the present study is to find out the changing role of tourism development in Gujarat. How
the different ways & type of marketing system is serving in the massive inflow of tourists in the study area. Other than
above mentioned objectives the paper also highlights that how the various resources are helping in the tourism
development and how the tourism is helping in resource development in the region.
METHODOLOGY
The study is based on the personal observations (few places) & available secondary sources. The secondary
sources include the report of provided by Gujarat Tourism Corporation Limited (GITCL), various articles at state, national
& international level. Further the historic approach has also been taken into consideration for the tourism development in
Gujarat. Now days, the places of natural surroundings is becoming a major attraction for tourists interests, because of its
pure natural values. The tourist as observer, have a significant role in changing pattern of utilizing the resources & bringing
the spatial variation in it over a region, which have direct or indirect influence on tourism environment. In this viewpoint,
the present attempt has been generalized to understand the impact of environment on tourism development.
Figure 1: Location Map of Study Area
1 Pratap R., Prasad, k., “Tourism Geography”, Shree Publishers, New Delhi, 2005, pp. 298.
A Study of Changing Scenario of Tourism Development in Gujarat 59
STUDY AREA
The study area is located between the latitude of 20° 01’N & 24° 07’N; longitude of 68° 04’E & 74° 04’E,
encompassing an area of 196,024 km². Gujarat enjoys dominantly a tropical monsoonal climate. Since the study area is not
concentrated to any particular place or point here the Gujarat as a whole is taken as a study area. The current world tourism
contribution to GDP is 11%. The current Indian tourism contribution to GDP is 1.8% and it is targeted to reach 6% in the
next decade. If this can be re-targeted to reach 10% an additional 1.2 crore jobs can be created. A majority of the 2 crore
NRIs, are Gujarati who are prosperous as professionals and traders. This untapped resource can be motivated to become
prospective tourists and investors in this sector and the GDP level can be improved considerably.
LITERATURE’S RIVEWS
Not much literature is available regarding the changing dimension of tourism industry in Gujarat. But some of
author’s did wonderful job in representing & maintaining Gujarat as important destinations either in the form of poems,
articles or book chapters. Some of them could be explained below:
Vyas Rajnee: In his book originally called as ‘The Asmita of Gujarat’, he mesmerizes about wakeful
responsibilities for a Gujarati, to serve the nation. He has covered almost all the aspects of the life of Gujarat. It is obvious
that books which incorporate not hundreds but thousands of details are not going to be completed and total in themselves1.
The author did not only explains the pride of Gujarati’s but also the major attractive features of Gujarat, beginning from its
history of formation to distinguish land, coastline, glittering lamps, folk-life, forestry and ecology etc.
Makarand Maheta: He expresses his ideas on the historical development of tourism in India with special
reference to Gujarat. In the ancient time the ostentatious temples and King’s Palaces were the great attraction for tourists.
He also mentioned that at that time the Gujarati’s also did trade in extreme East Asia and regions of Africa and laid the
foundation of trade and travel. Actually the writer tried to give more emphasis on the origin of different tourist places with
lots of ups and downs in India with special reference to Gujarat.
M. J. Parmar: According to him, “it will be worth to say that Gujarat is a type of land of travelers”. He has given
main emphasis on the religious tourism and on the basis of the political, economic and cultural life of Gujarat he derived
that in every work of human life is full of religion. The people from Shavdharma, Vaishnavdharma, Jaindharma,
Shaktidharma, Islamdharma and Parasidharma came to Gujarat.
Rahman S.A.: In his beautiful India Series of Gujarat, he mentioned about Gujarat’s land, people, heritage,
history, geography, economy, polity and tourism etc. which is a gift for all scholars, researchers and general readers. He
gave a little idea about the major attractions of Gujarat such as national parks, sanctuaries, temples, hilly places,
archaeological sites etc. In his views Gujarat has 4 national parks and 11 centuries.
Basak Tarak Nath: In his presented article on “International Tourism in India”, he explains the major causes of
attractions for foreign visitors in India. The great diversity in Geographical, historical, economical and socio-cultural etc.
has augmented international tourism in India. In this paper author has attempted to analyze the character and present trend
of International tourism in India.
Shiv Prasad B. Sajgor: In his book, ‘Gujarat Ek Darshan’, he beautifully organizes the ancient cultural and
historical background of Gurjars. During the year of 200, the Gurjars are believed, belongs to be ‘vaishya’ group. But later
1 Joshi Umashankar, (1988), “The Glory of Gujarat”. Gujarat Ananda Prakashan. Pg. V.
60 Pawan K. Shukla & A. A. Ansari
Brahmins converted them to ‘Kshatriya’ to confront with Buddhism.
Kaushik Pandya: He did a wonderful job with support of his wife as a cartographer and GTCL in promoting the
Gujarat as absolutely glorious place for tourism. His book “A journey to Glorious Gujarat” is a comprehensive travel guide
which does not only provide the necessary tourist information but also historical importance of the place.
Ashok Vyas: In his book ‘Gujarat Tourism’, he beautifully explains the potentiality of Gujarat as a tourist
destination. The history of Gujarat will take you back to the most fascinating epochs of the past, i.e. 5000 year old
civilization throbs with rhythmic life. He made an attempt to provide a bird’s-eye view of the diverse and yet integrated
canvas called Gujarat.
Philip Ward: While traveling to Gujarat his personal impression was to provide more meaningful information to
western visitors (Portuguese) in terms of history, geography, art, architecture, landscape and life both human and animals.
In his study he begins from Gujarat’s changing trends in population growth to the historical backgrounds of some major
cities (Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Rajasthan, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar) along with the cultural importance of all these
cities.
Sudarshan Majithia: His idea was to write this book (The Gujarat’s Directory including who’s who), to come
out the problem of study about the Gujarat in Gujarati language. In terms of cultural life he unintentionally opens up new
way of life and heritages by mentioning Gujarat’s history, festivals, music, dance, art, archaeology, museums, ancient
architectures, movies, sculptures etc. But geographical explanations are lacking and nothing much is available in his
literature about Gujarat as a tourist destination.
Jacobson Doranne: In his opinion, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra- three larger states- together make
up much of India’s vibrant heartland. They shelter monuments of some of the greatest epochs of early Indian history and
are also throbbing with active modern life.
Ushakant Mehta: It is an old literature produced in 1984 with the financial support of Rajya Lalit Kala Akadami.
In this book he detailed about art, folk culture, way of life, embroidery and handicrafts of Kutch region.
Kishor Makvana: In his book ‘yatra’, he explains about the old age tourism (yatra), been conducted as a great
occasion. When the person comes out for tour up to his destination they do lots of spiritual activities. However, despite of
reduction in the distance between place of origin and destination of a tourist by present transportation system, still its
adventurous nature did not affected.
MAJOR CHANGES IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
The Gujarat, India’s westernmost and most industrialized arm of the country, belongs to the birthplace of
Mahatma Gandhi, stronghold of Jainism and Hinduism, is one of its least visited and most colorful state in India. The
origin of tourism in the state is knotted with the Ancient period i.e., earliest civilizations of India. The earliest civilization
flourished here around 3500 BC when the people from North and Northwest migrated to India. The spinning cotton into
yarn and weaving it into cloth become an important item of trade as well as for tourism for the Indus people along the ports
of Cambay & Kutch coast to distant cities of Mesopotamia. Today, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Mahesana etc. are
blooming as a commercial center for main tourism activity. Even the major religious centers such as Dwarka, Palitana, Sun
Temple, Lord Shiva’s temple were main attractions, pulled tourists from all over the world. Later, as the movement of
people caught momentum for different purposes the frequency of incoming and outgoing tourists also fluctuated. The
exchange foreign currencies played a very important role in the economic development of the region. In recent times the
A Study of Changing Scenario of Tourism Development in Gujarat 61
concept of tourism has undergone a big change. Tourism basket now consists of numerous packages to sustain the tourist
interest. The heritage tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, sports tourism, health tourism, pleasure tourism,
recreational tourism etc, have all become very fashionable. In recent years whatever can attract a visitor with his purse
open for spending becomes a tourist and the purpose for which he comes becomes the type of tourism. Places and areas
receiving a steady flow of tourists are observed to experience a quick thrift and a big cultural transformation. Every rupee
brought in and spend locally contributes to the local earning. This is why tourism has been given the status of industry. So,
looking to the earnings by the tourism industry the state government formulated a long list of policies to boost the tourism
in the state. The policy maker’s realizes about the economic importance of tourism activity. The tourism has wide spectrum
phenomena. Authorities taking now more interests in developing the new different types of tourist centers for
entertainment, leisure, recreation etc. The development of various natural parks one of them the Sasan-Gir Sanctuary,
where one might see the nearly extinct Asiatic lions. The Bhuj, with its narrow alleys, carved balconies, old palaces and
royal mausoleum is the most remote & charismatic area of Gujarat. This is also famous for its long Royal history, the
vibrant colours of village life, its music, dance and crafts and the welcoming smiles of the Gujarati people.
The Parsis too belongs to this state where they had landed at a place called Saijan in A.D. 745 and many of them
still live here (Medieval Period). Thousands of them have migrated to Bombay. As the Jains earn, they spend lavishly on
building new temples and on charities like schools and religious trusts. Most Gujaratis are vegetarians as Jainism strictly
prohibit meat-eating1. As if chemicals, diamond cutting, textiles, thermal electricity, pharmaceuticals and other
heavyweight manufacturing weren’t enough to occupy its teeming 51 million population of Gujarat, this year, the state
began muscling into a type of sector previously dominated by the likes of Katmandu, Agra and the Taj Mahal, Goa and
Delhi along India’s tourist trail. (Mr. P.D. Vaghela, Managing director of Gujarat tourism, 2006) Mr. Vaghela also pointed
out, “And Gujarat is very safe,” “Women can walk alone at night. During Navratri, millions of girls and boys danced
through nine nights and not a single law and order case resulted. This is truly amazing”.
Today the tourism development does not remain to only economic strategies but also in the social relation
(Modern period). The development of rural tourism will bolster employment generation2. It is directly related to the
economic & societal upgrading. So, the entrepreneur’s strategies to develop socially & economically deprived areas by
providing certain infrastructure and basic amenities to boost tourism there. Banking on the rich traditions of art, craft and
culture in the Gujarat villages and aiming at the sustainable tourism development. The village destinations will be
marketed based on rich traditions, crafts, accommodation, cuisine, hygiene and other basic amenities etc. their
accessibility, environmental issues, Safety law and order situation (for both the local population as well as tourists), etc.
There are number of rural areas have been identified based on their core competency in handicrafts, handlooms and
culture, close to existing destinations and circuits. The rural tourism will bolster employment and revenue generation at the
local level.
The marketing strategies of GTCL, also plays an important role in attracting tourism activity in the State. The
investment of Rs. 1 lakh cror in next five year made by the Govt. of Gujarat after terrorist attack in Mumbai, show an
aggressive marketing of tourism in Gujarat. The Govt. in a bid to attract investors propose an unveil investor tourism
policy announced by Mr. Vyas, Gujarat Tourism Minister, at the roadshow for Vibrant Gujarat on January 11,12,13. He
1 Seth Pran Nath, “India: A Traveller’s Companion”, A Sterling Paperback Reprinted 1998, pp 343.
2 Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Tourism Minister, Ambika Soni, New Delhi.
62 Pawan K. Shukla & A. A. Ansari
also said that “Gujarat, which has emerged as the leading investment destination in the industry sector, has every
potential to become leader in the tourism sector and the tourism policy will provide much needed support.
Looking to that during the VGGIS in 2007 and 2009, as many as 130 MoUs signed and in tourism sector have got
translated into investment of 415 cror till December 2010. It is will be worth to mention about the contribution of Mr.
Amitabh Bachchan, a brand Ambassador of Gujarat Tourism, who came under fire from the Congress party for promoting
Gujarat Tourism. Mr. Bachchan did the shooting at different places, such as Somnath, Gir, Bhuj, Ahmedabad etc. and
handed over the DVDs to the Gujarat’s Chief Minister.
The GT released the ads on internet a week. The impact was that the Gir National Park alone was flooded with
tourists. The actual aim was to release the ads on national and international television. They actually release these ads at
perfect time. During the Kutch Rann Utsav 2010, these ads worked as a major stimulant in attracting tourists from within
the country as well as from outside the country. The Gujarat Govt. also revealed that Mr. Bachchan promoted Gujarat
tourism for free, who charges Rs. 1 cror a day for ad shoot. Last year state government spent 20 crores on the advertising
campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan named, “KHUSHBOO GUJARAT KI”.
Statement Showing the Details of Tourists Visited to Gujarat
Months
Years
Within Gujarat Other Indian States Total Domestic Foreigners/NRI Grand Total
2002-03 2010-11 2002-03 2010-11 2002-03 2010-11 2002-03 2010-11 2002-03 2010-11
April 244156 1132638 85071 383240 329227 1515878 8719 30878 337946 1546756
May 330923 1165967 128961 321925 459884 1487892 8321 33507 468205 1521399
June 321727 1197942 107066 345542 428793 1543484 1286 28641 430079 1572125
July 306903 1116881 83904 321318 390807 1438199 2439 27186 393246 1465385
Aug 409186 1149078 128800 336822 537986 1485900 3530 25200 541516 1511100
Sept 584512 1291769 122648 333846 707160 1625615 5883 26524 713043 1652139
Oct 404705 1250286 122557 367457 527262 1617743 4536 30610 531798 1648353
Nov 469239 1270707 181705 369853 650944 1640560 6110 31815 657054 1672375
Dec 346348 1403329 135971 436605 482319 1839934 4795 38571 487114 1878505
Jan 390213 1389479 136530 373638 526743 1763117 5137 40474 531880 1803591
Feb 418510 0 123736 0 542246 0 7314
549560 0
March 401077 0 115675 0 516752 0 7024
523776 0
TOTAL 4627499 12368076 1472624 3590246 6100123 15958322 65094 313406 6165217 16271728
STATEMENT SHOWING THE DETAILS OF TOURISTS VISITED TO GUJARAT
(2002-03 and 2010-2011)
Source: GTCL (Gujarat Tourism Corporation Limited)
“Gujarat is witnessing a rise in tourism thanks to its effective campaigns to promote the state's culture and
tradition”, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday. “Gujarat is achieving new milestones in tourism. And considering
the progress we have made so far, there is no looking back," Modi said while inaugurating the 21st International Kite
Festival in Ahmedabad.
Traditional garba dance, food festivals, and the Kite Festival have added to Gujarat's popularity, according to
Modi. Gujarat tourism , attracting 1.65 crore visitors annually, is expected to witness a 30 percent increase, added the
official. Over 37 countries, including France, Italy, Vietnam, New Zealand and Ukraine, are participating in the Uttarayan
kite festival festival. The day-long festival has eight Indian states with over 150 participants and will be followed by the
Jan 12-13 Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.
A Study of Changing Scenario of Tourism Development in Gujarat 63
MAJOR TOURIST SITES IN GUJARAT
The Gujarat, from ages has been a powerful witness of two most important type of tourism activity, the religious
and coastal tourism. In historic sense its major religious centers have been known to the world from its formation (origin),
and that’s becomes the way to penetrate into Gujarat land. While in modern sense the coastal area tourism development are
showing some contemporary preparation. After recognition of tourism as an economic development the new tourism
policies has been formulated to boost tourism in the state. Further as the state becomes the Industrial hub, the tourism
phenomena become more of a type of Industry rather an activity.
The huge investment from outside in the industrial sector also upgraded tourism sector. The development of
roads, railways, airways, ports puts the tourism sector on a high. In terms of religious centres the Dwarka, Somnath,
Ambaji, Palitana, Sankheswar etc. are very important sites where every year millions of tourist whether domestic, national
or international, comes to visit & stay.
The coastal tourism involves the whole Southern part of Kutch, Saurashtra and western part of South Gujarat
provides a number of beautiful & variety of beaches, which could worth to visit. Some beaches such as Ahmedpur
Mandavi, Tithal, Dandi, Somnath, Chorward, Porbandar, Madhavpur, Gopnath etc. are among the best beaches of the
country. Except the Saputara, almost all the hill stations in the state are well recognized religiously. Time to time the
Government is also taking strong inventiveness to support tourism industry.
For such reasons the state also took one important initiative by creating the year of 2006 as a Gujarat’s Year of
Tourism and came out punching above their weight, revealing a raft of tourism aces up their wide cotton sleeves. The
people are indulging deep into rich seams of history and culture with strings of antique temples and Baroque cenotaphs
(monuments).
They are mining the beauty of a landscape that stretches out into the Arabian Sea, “like an open jaw of a lion”
with the Saurashtra Peninsula and the Kutch desert marking their mid-western border. They are promoting their four
National Parks, and 21 wildlife sanctuaries. (GTCL) Gujarat intends to mobilize its mix of modernity, ancient attractions
and unspoiled landscapes to become a leading world destination.
A separate Tourism Department was established in 1973 to identify and develop the tourism potential in the State.
This was followed by the creation of Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited in 1978 which was entrusted with the task of
undertaking and developing tourism-related commercial activities. The Corporation is presently engaged in a variety of
activities such as creation of lodging and boarding facilities for the tourists and other aspects of tourist facilitation
arranging cultural festivals, organizing exhibitions and producing and distributing maps, posters, brochures and pamphlets.
GUJARAT’S NEW TOURISM POLICIES
The state’s tourism policy has been announced in 2010, focusing on the developing Gujarat as the top tourism
destination in India. The policy was also to open doors for huge investment and put Gujarat on global tourist map. “The
Gujarat will have the features which will meet the expectations of Gujarat tourist industry”.1 There about investment of Rs.
500 cror at Ambaji and Saputara in coming three four years, said by Mr. Vyas. According to new tourism policies, to
promote adventure tourism, paragliding at Pavagarh and Saputara will be started soon and in addition to that, wildlife and
agro tourism will also be promoted.
1 Vyas Jaynarayan, Minister of tourism and health and family welfare in ‘Gujarat Tourism Summit 2009’ organized by
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Nov. 23, 2009.
64 Pawan K. Shukla & A. A. Ansari
Figure 2
Source: Website of GTCL
The Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh nationally and Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia on an
international level are the competitors of Gujarat in terms of tourist location. Government of Gujarat is planning to pump in
around Rs. 172 cror in 2009 compared to Rs. 34 cror in 2005. We plan to reach 2nd
rank in terms of hospitality in coming
years.1 During “The Gujarat Tourism Summit 2009”, participants also pointed out a few issues like establishing more
budget hotels, creating special tourism zones, creation of Gujarat Travel mart, proper branding of the state tourism,
creating awareness among the stakeholders on all tourism forums, creating more infrastructure through PPP model, rural
heritage development, and special entertainment zones, eco-tourism, theme-based tourism, rural tourism, developing night
life etc. furthermore, the state tourism department is organizing IKF on January 11, 2010 in Ahmedabad and January 13,
2010 in Surat and Porbunder. During a press conference held in Mumbai to promote IKF, Vipul Mittra, Secretary Tourism,
Gujarat said, “The Policy is under drafting stage at the moment and we are looking at releasing the same in the next two
months. The Policy will enable us to develop the tourism potential much more efficiently.” For IKF festival the state
tourism department has already received confirmation from 105 kite flyers from 34 different countries and 120 Indian kite
flyers from nine different states. It had been organized at the Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad. Each year different
venues decided for IKF competition to promote that particular area through the kite festival2.
SOME GLIMPSES ABOUT GTCL ACHEIVEMENTS
Over the years, the number of tourists has increases to Gujarat substantially, largely due to the development in
infrastructure undertaken by the Corporation. In fact, the efforts in promoting infrastructure the corporation won such
prestigious awards such as National Tourism Awards-2005-06 for Best Kept Tourism Monument- Champaner and
Excellence in Publication. A special appreciation letter to Chief Secretary from Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of
India, for “Extremely well produced literature” and “Great job done by Gujarat Tourism”. It also received Best Tourism
Film Award of Govt. of India during the Tourism year 2006 for the tourism field “Glimpses of Glory”. It received National
Tourism Award of Best Tourism Friendly Monument for Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park in 2007. It received
award for Best ethnic tourism pavilion in SATTE-2007 in New Delhi and also for various tourism fairs & exhibitions of
excellence and tourism promotion. It also received award for Best Tourism Film for “DHOLAVIRA- A FUTURIC
1 Rao Kishor, former tourism secretary and director - general, Gujarat Establishment Golden Jubilee Secretariat (Dec. 30,
2008).
2 Mittra Vipul, Secretary Tourism, Gujarat, during a press conference held in Mumbai to promote IKF on Jan 5, 2010.
A Study of Changing Scenario of Tourism Development in Gujarat 65
METROPOLIS OF THE PAST”, by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Gujarat Received “Best Tourism
Pavilion” award on 19th
April, 2008 at Asia’s biggest Tourism and Travel Exhibition- SATTE-2008, held at New Delhi.
Figure 3: Change in Tourist Arrivals in Gujarat (2002-03 & 2010-11)
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
The above paper highlights the changing pattern of tourism activity and development in the state of Gujarat.
During the study it was found that the Gujarat Government (GTCL) is working hard to make Gujarat as a tourism centre of
not only in India but also in the world. As the population is changing, development opportunities area increasing, the
choice and need of the people also get changes. Historically since, Gujarati people had interacted with different countries
of the world (Gulf and South Asian etc.), so travelling at far places is in their blood. The Geographical location of Gujarat
enriches the cultural diversity of the people, which made it developing very fast industrially, this cultural inheritance given
more impetus to tourism development. The people here are mostly business minded and extend their works to outside the
countries also. Although, the people of Gujarat in past (also in present) traveled for religious purpose but changing interest
now led them to have a wide range of prospects such as for entertainment, leisure, recreation, cultural sense etc.
Government is taking now more interest in developing other areas (than religious places) such as coastal tourism, beach
tourism, Island tourism, nature-based tourism, river front tourism, heritage tourism, adventure tourism etc. “A bid to
promote tourism in the state, the government will soon undertake development of over a dozen beaches along 1,600 km
coastline, this move is expected to attract investments both from domestic and overseas to the tune of Rs. 50,000 crore in
the forthcoming Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit”, said Tourism Minister Jay Narayan Vyas. Comparatively, this year a
high tourist inflow has been recorded than previous year and the credit goes to the brand ambassador of Gujarat, Mr.
Amitabh Bachchan and it will be worth to say many thanks for his treasured trip to state. There is a lot of things to be done
in the coming years because there is no doubt Gujarat has a huge potential to become a tourism hub in India, only things
required proper planning and implementation.
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