India to soon have 17 coastal spots developed for tourism

Indian Government is making way for developing 17 spots around the country in a bid to make use of the country’s bountiful coastline and make it one of the top beach destinations. India, earlier, could not make use of its 7517 km coastline and failed to turn it tourist-friendly. While in 2017, Indian coastline received a tourist footfall of 10.4 million, Thailand with just 3219 km of coastline managed to attract 35 million tourists.
India now looks forward to create such beach tourism a success story, by developing the available coastlines around the country. The potential of Indian beaches has long been a subject of discussion in tourism circles. In the past four years, the government already undertook the task of developing 17 coastal projects across the country. The project of INR 2,000 crore, which is mostly under the Tourism Ministry’s Swadesh Darshan Scheme, is aimed at promoting beach and coastal tourism. Of the 17 projects, only the process of development for beachfront at Kakinada has been completed. The beach now features a musical fountain, modern landscaping, a glass pedestrian bridge, an art gallery and a food court. There are also arrangements for daily laser shows at Kakinada, with the harbour and sea in the backdrop.
As per the reports, a number of tourists from East European countries and Russia are interested only in beaches. They come to Goa on their chartered flights, stay in hotels that are located near the beaches for two weeks or more, and then return home. They are not interested in visiting other destinations. Therefore, steps will be taken to build suitable infrastructure and connectivity around these 17 coastal projects to attract more and more tourists.