Tourism in Gujarat set to get major boost from Diu fest, Rann Utsav

AHMEDABAD: With leisure vacationing taking over pilgrimage, tourism in Gujarat is set to get a major boost as two major tourist festivals are beginning in the next fortnight. Gujarat government's flagship tourist festival `Rann Utsav' in Kutch is in for some competition from international beach festival in union territory of Diu slated to begin from December 1.
The union territory of Diu will be hosting the first ever 75-day international festival `Festa Di Diu' (in Portugese), which is likely to go on till February 2016, while Kutch is expected to play host to over two lakh tourists during the three-month long `Rann Utsav` beginning by the end of this month.
This is for the first time that two large scale tourism festivals are being held in the same region simultaneously. Tour operators and travel agents believe that instead of eating into each other's share, these two festivals will bring in more tourists. In fact, tour operators have re-worked their tour packages covering both the destinations - Diu and Kutch. Though Diu is a union territory, it gets a major share of tourists from Gujarat.
“Both the festivals have brought a boom time for tourism industry. Although there will be competition between the two, it will benefit the tourism in the state at the end of the day,“ said Manish Sharma, chairman, Tourism Development Society.
Special arrangements for both the festivals are being made. In case of Diu, Air India has already begun a new flight on Ahmedabad-Mumbai route four times a week to cater to the increasing number of tourists. “This year is a beginning and we plan to hold this festival every year. In 2014, around 17.5 lakh tourists visited Diu and this year, we expect to cross 35 lakh mark with this festival,“ said Manish Kumar Agrawal, IGP, Union Territories of Daman, Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
In case of `Rann Utsav', the tourism department of Gujarat has brought in a new private player to set up tents and provide other facilities in a bid to make the services competitive. For the last two years, the state tourism department was holding the festival in Kutch in partnership with White Rann Hospitality Pvt Ltd (WRHPL). This year along with WRHPL, the government has brought in White Rann Resort (WRR), a subsidiary of an Ahmedabad-based firm. With two players in tow, the total number of tents at the fest is likely to be around 400.
In 2013-14, around 1.17 lakh tourists visited `Rann Utsav' which surged by 61% to 1.90 lakh tourists in 201415. “We expect around 20% increase in number of tourists to `Rann Utsav' this year. We will be setting up 350 tents under three categories,“ said Nikhil Agarwal, partner, WRHPL.
“This is our first time and we are setting up 46 tents. We have already got 50% advance bookings,“ said Paras Patel, managing director, WRR.