With a contribution of over 13.5 per cent last fiscal, the tourism sector has emerged as one of the main contributer to Gujarat's state domestic product (SDP), an official said today. "Since the last 10 years during Narendra Modi's regime, tourism has been emerging as a sector contributing substantially to Gujarat's SDP," Tourism Corporation of Gujarat (TCG) Chairman Kamlesh Patel told reporters here.

In the last financial year, tourism contributed more than 13.5 per cent of the Gujarat SDP, he said.

Patel, who inaugurated a new city office of TCG here, said that inbound tourists to Gujarat at the end of March 2013 numbered 2.54 crore, which was only 60 lakh 10 years ago.

He said the tourism department had invested more than Rs 1,800 crore for improving tourism infrastructure in the state.

Patel said Gujarat would also construct the world's highest statue, the Statue of Unity, depicting Sardar Vallabhai Patel at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore.