With a good opening of the tourism season, the tourism industry is all set to touch new heights this year. The September month is considered as the beginning of the tourism season in this region when the foreigners start to reach this city in large numbers. And, the period between September and March end is known as the peak season for arrival of foreign tourists. In comparison to the figures of the arrival of foreigners registered in the month of September in the past three years, a surprise increase has been visible in the number of foreigners this year.
Regional tourism officer Dinesh Kumar said: "September is surely considered to be the beginning of the tourism season as the foreigners start to visit the city when weather condition becomes a little pleasant. But, this year, a surprise change has been noticed. The arrival of foreigners did not reduce even in those months that are counted in the off-season period-- between April and August. Due to the same change in the trend of the arrival of foreigners, the industry has started hoping that a new record can be set this year as the number of foreign visitors may touch the mark of two lakh for the first time by December end."
The RTO said in 2009, a total of 1,88,853 foreign tourists had visited the city while in the current year the number of foreign tourists had touched the march of 1,64,665 by September end. The rising trend was maintained in October and also in the first five days of November, added Kumar. The tourism officials are very enthusiastic with this latest trend, especially in the off-season. Kumar said the tourists visiting the country individually or in small groups were responsible for the change in trend.
He said the foreign tourists visiting the city for site-seeing stay for a limited period and mostly come in large groups. These tourists still prefer to visit the city in the tourism season. But, Kumar said, "a large number of foreigners are visiting the city for learning music, yoga, Sanskrit, Indian arts and culture. Their arrival depends on the time given by their gurus (teachers) for teaching them." He added it was a major reason that the foreigners were not only visiting the city in off-season months but also staying for long. Kumar denied that the Commonwealth Games or other events had played any role in the increasing number of foreigner visitors. He said the tourism industry did not suffer even at the time of global recession.
The officials said the availability of cheap accommodation, food and other facilities also attracted the tourists who visited on low budget. He said the department had seen that many lodges and guest houses had come up in localities along the ghats that were accommodating the foreigners on very cheap rate. He said a fresh drive had been launched to ensure that such guest houses and lodged were operating legally after completing all formalities of registration.
Though the officials are tightlipped over the issue of easy availability of intoxicants and drugs like ganja, heroin, smack and charas, sources claim it to be one of the reasons for the large number of tourists. Following the mysterious deaths of some foreigners in the recent past, the police officials had also admitted earlier that easy availability of intoxicants could not be denied at the prime tourists spots like ghats along the Ganga.
Decline in domestic tourism
Though the tourism industry is enthused with the grand opening of the tourism season, the declining figures of the domestic tourists has shocked it. Keeping in view the continuous growth in the arrival of domestic tourists, the industry was expecting that the number of domestic tourists could touch the mark of 40 lakh by the end of 2010. But, the sharp reduction in the number of domestic tourists in the past four months has jolted the industry.
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