Foreign tourist visits to the country registered an impressive growth of 24.2% in the year 2010. Similarly domestic tourist visits also showed a growth of 10.7 % last year. The number of domestic tourist visits to the States/ UTs during the year 2010 was 740 million as compared to 669 million in 2009 and 563 million in 2008. 

"Tirupati temple in Andhra attracts maximum tourists. In fact, the number of domestic tourists visiting the state is more than Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra which have Taj Mahal and Ajanta Ellora respectively," a senior Tourism Ministry official said.

The top ten States in terms of number of domestic tourist visits (in millions) during 2010 were Andhra Pradesh (155.8), Uttar Pradesh (144.8), Tamil Nadu (111.6), Maharashtra (48.5), Karnataka (38.2), Madhya Pradesh (38.1), Uttarakhand (30.2), Rajasthan (25.5), West Bengal (21.1) and Gujarat (18.9).The contribution of top 10 States was about 85.5% to the total number of domestic tourist visits during 2010. The percentage shares of top 5 States were Andhra Pradesh (21.0%), Uttar Pradesh (19.6%), Tamil Nadu (15.1%), Maharashtra (6.5%) and Karnataka (5.2%) . 

The number of foreign tourist visits (FTVs) during the year 2010 was 17.9 million as compared to 14.4 million in 2009 and 2008. This shows an impressive growth of 24.2% over 2009 as compared to a decline of 0.1% in 2009 over 2008. 

The top ten States in terms of number of FTVs (in millions) during 2010 were Maharashtra (5.1), Tamil Nadu (2.8), Delhi (1.9), Uttar Pradesh (1.7), Rajasthan (1.3), West Bengal (1.2), Kerala (0.66), Bihar (0.64), Himachal Pradesh (0.45) and Goa (0.44). The contribution of top 10 States was about 90.3% to the total number of FTVs in the country during 2010. The percentage shares of top 5 States were Maharashtra (28.5%), Tamil Nadu (15.7%), Delhi (10.6%), Uttar Pradesh (9.4%) and Rajasthan (7.2%)

PIB