Chennai is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. With its historic landmarks and buildings, long sandy beaches, cultural and art centers and parks, Chennai's tourism offers many potentially interesting locations to visitors. Chennai was ranked 9th in travel guide Lonely Planet 's top 10 cities ranking. Chennai had been the most visited city in India by foreign tourists consecutively from [ 2 ] to , [ 3 ] [ 4 ] overtaking New Delhi and Mumbai with visitors to heritage sites in Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram and medical tourists making up the largest numbers.
In , Chennai was ranked 41st in global top city destination ranking, with 3,, tourists, a 14 percent increase from , [ 5 ] This is up from 2,, tourists in , when Chennai was the third most visited city in India by foreigners ranked after Delhi and Mumbai.
In , Delhi and Mumbai overtook Chennai in terms of number of foreign visitors due to their considerably higher growth rates. Chennai attracted 3,, foreign tourists that year with a growth rate of only 1. The city was 43rd most visited city in the world for year and recorded growth of 10 percent in arrivals over As of [update] , the city has 21 luxury hotels in the five-star category, with over 4, rooms in the inventory.
Proximity to electronics and the auto industry players in and around the Sriperumbudur area in the west side of the city creates demand for hotels near the Chennai airport area among business travellers. Chennai has some unique places to offer for shopping. Art and crafts, contemporary and traditional artwork, antiques, jewellery are available in the city. Traditional items like the leaf and palmyra-fiber handicrafts from Tirunelveli , bronze and brass castings and traditional jewellery from Kumbakonam , metal works from Thanjavur , stone carvings from Mahabalipuram , silks from Kanchipuram are for sale in shops and boutiques.
The city also houses a paintball centre and water sports club on the east coast road. There are also a large number of beach resorts all along the East Coast Road highway to Mahabalipuram. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item.
