Beach tourism: 14 sites chosen for promotion

Commenting on budgetary demands of the Tourism Department during a debate,Vyas told the House that the number of domestic and foreign tourists had increased quite substantially in the last couple of years. He said altogether 1,23,43,000 tourists visited the state in 2006-07 and 1,06,26,563 tourists till November-end last year.

Vyas said that the state had been divided into eight ‘hubs’ to promote tourism. These include Ahmedabad-metro,Ahmedabad (north Gujarat),Vadodara,Surat,Rajkot-Bhavnagar,Jamnagar,Junagadh and Kutch-Bhuj.

Giving details about fund allocations,he said that a sum of Rs 183 crore has been set aside for tourism development during the current financial year,and out of it Rs 136.64 crore would be spent on developing facilities; Rs 10 crore for setting up Santnagari; and another Rs 56.36 crore for publicity and promotion.