AGARTALA, Dec 5 (TIWN): “The look-east policy of the government is paying off. Tourist from the US, United Kingdom, France and Southeast Asian countries are frequently visited Tripura and other NE states and taking them on familiarization tours of all the Northeast states,” a senior government official said. Tripura among the "seven-sister states" but essentially forms a part of the North-East, hosted the highest number of foreign tourists.Probably the state's better accessibility to the rest of India as compared to the other states in the region was the reason for high growth of tourism.

However, it was Tripura that registered the steepest growth as the number of foreign tourists swelled to 26,688 in 2014 from 11,853 in the previous year. Assam also saw a good increase in number, from 17,638 to 21,537.Tourism department GOI showed an increase in the number of tourist arrival along with visits of foreign tourists during the last three financial years.So far the Tourism department of the state government listed 23 tourist spots including some hot spots across the state and listed six more rural tourism spots to expand the tourism industry.

Moreover Tourism Minister stated that the government also initiated massive developmental drive to develop all the tourist spots of the state equipped with basic amenities for tourism.