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RAJASTHAN INDIA TOURISMNewsRajasthan Set for Record Tourism

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News

Rajasthan Set for Record Tourism

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

One of the world's most favoured tourist destinations, Rajasthan has witnessed an unprecedented growth of more than 50 percent in domestic and foreign tourist traffic this year. The desert state witnessed a record arrival of more than 600,000 foreign tourists and 12.5 million domestic tourists in 2003.

That's not all. In the first six months of this year, the foreign tourist arrivals went up 63 percent and domestic by 33 percent. "In the first six months from January to July, 5.5 million domestic tourists and more than 380,000 foreign tourists have visited the state. This is a record arrival and we expect the trend to continue as the season has just begun," a state tourism department official said.

If travel inquiries are any indication, the year ahead is going to see tourist arrivals going up further. "If one goes by the number of inquiries, we feel that arrivals will at least look up by over 40 percent this year in comparison to the previous year," Karan Singh of Surya Tours & Travels said. He said interest among foreigners in Rajasthan is growing as it offers everything other than beaches and snow-clad mountains.

The Pushkar camel fair is also a big hit. As per preliminary estimates, around 10,000 foreign tourists are expected to attend the weeklong fair, which started Nov 19 and will end Friday.

"Foreigners love to watch the village lifestyle and the trading of animals. And no other place can be better than the Pushkar fair where you get all this plus festivities," Singh said.

Hotels are also reporting house full. "Forget about discounts, if you get a room you should be happy to grab it!" said Surendra Singh, a travel agent.

"We are booked fully up to February," the manager of a city-based five-star hotel said. He said thanks to the city emerging as a big conference centre, hotel business is booming.

Similar is the situation with small and medium category hotels that are reporting 70-80 percent of room occupancy on an average, which is around 40-45 percent more than the last year.

Even transporters, who provide taxis and coaches, are a happier lot.

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