Patna: Tourism is emerging as a sunrise sector in Bihar where the number of tourists has been doubled in just years "due to improvement in law and order". In 2011, Bihar received over 1,93,69,977 tourists, foreigners and domestic, while the figure was 87,50,541 in 2005 when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took rein of the state, the sources said.
Out of these 1.93 crore tourists, 9,72,487 were foreigners, the sources said citing figures of the Union Tourism ministry. The country received nearly 70 lakh foreign tourists in 2011, which means over 10 per cent of foreigners came to visit Bihar, the sources said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has on numerous occasions claimed that Bihar received more foreign tourists than Goa. Famous Buddhist sites of Gaya, Nalanda and Rajgir have been hot favourite of the holidayers.
According to Union Tourism ministry figure, Gaya international airport receives in between 45,000 to 50,000 foreign tourists a year. This development could be attributed to improved law and order situation under the NDA rule, Bihar Tourism Minister Sunil Kumar Pintoo said.
"More and more tourists, both domestic and foreigner, convinced of safe journey are streaming to the state to have a glimpse of history at various sites," Pintoo said.
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