Telangana pins hopes on Miss World pageant to give tourism a boost

Indian Express

19-05-2025

With the ongoing Miss World pageant in Hyderabad, the Telangana government expects a 10 percent increase in tourist footfall in the state, officials have said.
The pageant began May 10 and will continue until May 31, the day of the grand finale. According to Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, the state expects substantial increase in tourism footfall in the state.
Government data shows Telangana saw 58.6 million tourists in 2023 – the year when the latest data is available.
The state's focus will be to promise 'safe tourism' experience among global travellers, Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said.
'We are basing this [10 percent estimate] on calculations made by the tourism department which has been monitoring the uptick in tourist footfall in Telangana over the past few years,' he said. 'People who come to India usually stick to the tried and tested tourist destinations including Delhi, Rajasthan and Goa. Kerala too attracts tourists because of their sustained promotion. Here, in Telangana, we are promoting Hyderabad tourism and rural tourism as safe tourist destinations.'
The state hopes to use the pageant to help push Telangana to one of top five tourism destinations. According to the Union Tourism Department's data, in 2023, Uttar Pradesh (478.53 million) and Tamil Nadu (286.01 million), Karnataka (284.12 million), Andhra Pradesh (254.71 million) and Rajasthan (179 million) had the highest domestic tourists. Meanwhile, Maharashtra (3.39 million) Gujarat (2.81 million), West Bengal (2.71 million), Delhi (1.83 million), and Rajasthan (1.7 million) recorded the highest foreign tourist numbers.
The state has spent about Rs 30 crore with the support of sponsors on the pageant, Ranjan said.
'The approach was to grab global attention and grab global eyeballs by doing something really big,' he said. 'All media associated with the event is the property of the Telangana state. There are thousands of photographs and videos being taken each day and the state stake claim to all of these'.
Significantly, the Telangana government has been making considerable efforts to push tourism. According to Telangana's 2025-2030 tourism policy, the state aims to get Rs 15,000 crore of investments to its tourism sector and position among India's top five tourist states in terms of both domestic and tourist arrivals. The state hopes that tourism would eventually account for over 10 percent of the state's GDP, and aims to create three lakh jobs through the sector.
In an effort to push the industry, the state has been promoting tourism on digital marketing platforms and social media and has divided Telangana into 27 Special Tourism Areas (STA).
Among Telangana's top tourist destinations are Hyderabad with its Charminar cluster — Charminar, Mecca Masjid, Laad Bazaar, Salarjung Museum, Nizam Museum, and Chowmahalla Palace – and Warangal, including the Warangal fort and temples, Pakhal lake, Guduru Wildlife Sanctuary. Nalgonda and Karimnagar. Besides, it is also promoting rural tourism.
'From ecotourism, to wellness and medical tourism, spiritual tourism and arts and crafts tourism, we have a wide variety of destinations,' Ranjan said. 'We have to follow up the Miss World pageant with smaller events for tourism promotion. It is not that we will hold one big event and keep quiet. We will continue to promote Telangana as a global destination for tourism.'