Addressing the attendees of the recently concluded Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) Convention in Srinagar, Vipul Mittra, Secretary, Tourism, Civil Aviation and Pilgrimage, Government of Gujarat, said that the state had pumped in a lot of money in promotions and signed on Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador about three years ago. As a result of this move, the arrival figure have increased from 1.74 crores to the 2.23 crores it has recorded this year. Mittra was speaking about Gujarat’s three-pronged strategy to promote tourism. “The fact that 54 lakh tourists were drawn by the state in just two years has proved that the campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan was one of the most successful in the recent times,” he opined.
He outlined that Gujarat Tourism first identified their promotional activities as the prime point in its overall strategy, and then supported it by developing and strengthening infrastructure at major tourism destinations. The third was to formulate proactive policies allowing the private sector to come into the state and invest. “After the ad campaigns, the numbers increased substantially, and the challenge was infrastructure. We have a clear policy to not run or build hotels as governments are really bad at its operations. We wanted to build infrastructure of a public nature where the private sectors have not come in, like the last mile connectivity in terms of road and power, security, signages, air connectivity etc,” he said.
This move has resulted in a major addition of room inventory in the state. “In 2007, we had only 36,000 rooms and today we have 65,000 rooms in the state,” Mittra said, and added that this happened because the Gujarat government simplified the policies and allowed investment to come in.
The state tourism department is also investing heavily in tourism infrastructure. “We are putting in Rs 1500 crores in infrastructure over the next three to four years. We did a destination survey to find out what sort of infrastructure was needed at tourism destinations,” he said. He also informed that the Planning Commission of India sanctioned Rs 1200 crores for tourism growth in coastal areas in Gujarat for the 12th Plan period. “The Centre will allocate the amount in a span of five years, and an amount of Rs 306 crores will be released in the current year itself. The disbursement this year will also include a one-time immediate grant of Rs 70 crores,” he added. With this fund, Gujarat will develop ten beaches: Nargol, Tithal in Vadodara district; Gopnath and Bhavani beach in Bhavnagar district; Sarkeswar in Amreli district; Ahmedpur Mandvi and Madhavpur in Junagadh district; Miyani in Porbandar district and Pingleshwar and Mandvi in Kutch district.
Providing further details on how Gujarat Tourism wooed private investment, Mittra said that the government set up GUJTOP, a joint venture between Gujarat Tourism Corporation Limited and IL&FS. “The objective of GUJTOP is to identify and develop tourism projects; infrastructure gap analysis for major tourist destinations; development of adventure and water sports; and assisting the government in policy development. We have also created a SPV, Gujtour– a venture capital fund to promote adventure tourism in the state,” he said.
