City of lakhs: Udaipur in the midst of a travel boom

With India’s tourism industry still in recovery, the traveller favourite in Rajasthan saw 1.94 lakh arrivals in January 2023

daipur, the famed City of Lakes is experiencing a travel boom that’s continuing into the low season. According to a report by the Department of Tourism, the destination surpassed more than 1.94 lakh tourists in January, setting an all-time record. The majority of the foreign tourists (around 14,000) in January hailed from the USA, UK, and France further underscoring the city’s popularity as a tourist destination.

Airport arrivals were also recorded at an impressive 1,52,252 in the same month. In the past two years, more than 5,000 new hotel rooms have been added to the city’s hospitality portfolio (India’s first Raffles outpost opened in July 2021 and Fairmont Udaipur is expected to start in 2024). This rapid expansion observed in the first month of the year indicates — and is promoting — Udaipur rising up the national tourism charts.

“A couple of years ago, Udaipur attracted a small part of the tourism crowd, thriving majorly on international arrivals and weddings. Today, it has become the go-to escape for people looking to steer clear of major crowds at [more] popular destinations such as Jaipur and Jaisalmer,” says Karan Javeria, a travel expert and local guide affiliated with the Department of Tourism.

In December 2022 — a period of heavy tourist footfall — the city saw 2.25 lakh tourists. January is considered a low or offseason as tourism abates during the warmer months. But 2022 and 2023 witnessed a consistent rise in the number of visitors that came to enjoy the palaces and lakes without the crowd.

The fact that Udaipur’s tourism economy has jumpstarted on this steady path of recovery has buoyed the spirits of stakeholders in the tourism industry. The city’s unprecedented tourism growth can be credited to its dialled-down pace of life, retreat-style hotels that encourage wellness travel — a rising trend among Indian travellers — and crowd-free explorations.