List of tourist attractions in Chennai

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Marina Beach as seen from Light house

Pallava kingdom is an UNESCO World Heritage site
.

Chennai was ranked 9th in travel guide Lonely Planet's 2015 top 10 cities ranking.[1]

Tourist arrival statistics

Mahabalipuram Shore Temple is a major tourist attraction
Bharatanatyam dance

Chennai had been the most visited city in India by foreign tourists consecutively from 2010[2] to 2012,

Mahabalipuram
and medical tourists making up the largest numbers.

In 2011, Chennai was ranked 41st in global top 100 city destination ranking, with 3,174,500 tourists, a 14 percent increase from 2010,[5] This is up from 2,059,900 tourists in 2009, when Chennai was the third most visited city in India by foreigners ranked after Delhi and Mumbai.[6] Tourists from United States, UK, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore had visited the city in 2007.[7][failed verification] In 2012, Chennai served 3,535,200 foreign tourists ranking as 38th most visited city in the world and most visited city in India.[4]

In 2013, Delhi and Mumbai overtook Chennai in terms of number of foreign visitors due to their considerably higher growth rates. Chennai attracted 3,581,200 foreign tourists that year with a growth rate of only 1.1 percent over 2012.[8] Chennai continued to remain the third most visited city destination of India by foreigners in 2014[9] and 2015[10] with 3,857,900 and 4,243,700 tourists respectively. The city was 43rd most visited city in the world for year 2015 and recorded growth of 10 percent in arrivals over 2014.[10]

As of 2012, the city has 21 luxury hotels in the five-star category, with over 4,500 rooms in the inventory.[11] As of 2018, the collective luxury room inventory across four and five-star categories is around 7,000.[12] About 85 percent of the room demand in Chennai comes from business travellers. Demand in the CBD area comes mainly from BFSI and PSU companies, while the demand in the southern side of the city (Old Mahabalipuram Road) comes from IT/ITeS companies. 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.[13]

Arrival Percentage From Different Countries to Chennai[14]
Country Arrival percentage
Bangladesh 16.61
US 12.59
UK 10.57
Malaysia 3.41
Sri Lanka 5.92
Japan 2.75
Australia 2.40
Canada 2.63
Germany 2.57
China 2.77
Nepal 1.95
Singapore 1.91
France 2.54
UAE 1.68
Oman 2.19

Attractions

Beaches

Museums

  • Chennai Rail Museum
  • [2]
    A toy train offers rides around the premises on regular days. Museum remains open from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm (Last entry 5.30 pm) Tuesday to Sunday and remains closed on every Monday and National Holidays. The Indoor Art Gallery is now fully renovated and opened to the public.
  • deep sky
    every day at different times in both English and Tamil. The planetarium's 360-degree sky theatre is the first of its kind in India. The planetarium organises a special show on every second Saturday of the month to view the night sky from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Historical Monuments

  • Vivekanandar Illam or Vivekananda house is remembered as the place where Swami Vivekananda stayed for nine days when he visited Chennai (then Madras) in 1897. Vivekananda House now houses a permanent exhibition on Indian Culture. Located on the busy Kamrajar Salai along the Marina Beach, it has become an important spiritual tourist attraction in the city.
    Valluvar Kottam
  • Thirukkural are inscribed on bas-relief in the front hall's corridors. A life-size statue of Thiruvalluvar has been installed in the 39 m high chariot.
    St.Mary's Church inside Fort St.George

Historic Government Buildings

  • Anglican
    church in India, and Wellesley House, which holds the paintings of the Governor of the Fort and other high officials of the Regime.
  • Chennai Central
    railway station.
  • British architecture
    in Chennai. Built in 1888 as a town hall for the city of Madras and named after Queen Victoria to commemorate the golden jubilee.

Wildlife

Black Buck at Guindy National Park

Nature

Art and Crafts

Places of Worship

Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore

Shopping

Spencer Plaza is one of the oldest and largest shopping malls in Chennai.

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

Mahabalipuram, silks from Kanchipuram
are for sale in shops and boutiques.

  • T. Nagar, the neighbourhood is the shopping hub of the city. Two main areas are Pondy Bazaar and Ranganathan Street which are home to several multi-storey stores, unique to Chennai, which deals mainly in textiles and silks or gold, silver and diamond jewellery.
  • Parrys Corner
    are wholesale markets of the city where one can purchase almost anything.
  • Mint Street plays host to communities from Rajasthan and Gujarat and is where north Indian snacks can be sampled along with textiles, kitchenware, and jewellery.
  • Burma Bazaar is famous for its counterfeit electronic goods and media.
  • Moore Market
    in Central is known for its large number of bookstores.
  • The city also has a number of shopping malls spread across the landscape including the oldest
    Abirami Mega Mall, Mayajaal, Spectrum Mall
    .

Entertainment

There are four large

Kannada and Malayalam films.[18] The city has a large number of restaurants offering a variety of Tamil, Indian and international cuisines.[19] The nightlife in Chennai is vibrant and growing ranging from bars to pool parlours to lounges and clubs.[20]

Gallery

  • Santhome Basilica
    Santhome Basilica
  • Interior of Santhome Basilica
    Interior of Santhome Basilica
  • Chettinad Palace
    Chettinad Palace
  • Chennai viewed from St. Thomas Mount
    Chennai viewed from
    St. Thomas Mount
  • War Memorial
    War Memorial
  • Schmidt memorial at Elliot's beach
    Schmidt memorial at Elliot's beach
  • Government Museum at Egmore
    Government Museum at Egmore
  • Valluvar Kottam
    Valluvar Kottam
  • Aringar Anna Zoolological Park in Vandalur
    Aringar Anna Zoolological Park in Vandalur
  • The Victoria Public Hall
    The Victoria Public Hall

See also

  • Hotels in Chennai

References

  1. ^ "Chennai in Lonely Planet 2015 list of top 10 cities to visit". The Economic Times. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2010". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  3. ^ "Chennai High: City gets most foreign tourists". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2012". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  5. ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2011". Euromonitor International. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  6. ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2009". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  7. ^ http://www.timeofindia.com Times of India, 2 June 2008
  8. ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2013". Euromonitor International. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  9. ^ Bremner, Caroline. "Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2014" (PDF). Euromonitor International. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  10. ^ a b Bremner, Caroline. "Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2015" (PDF). Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  11. ^ Thomas, Liffy; Deepa H. Ramakrishnan (1 June 2012). "New hotels beckon the business class". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  12. ^ Chandramouli, Rajesh (27 April 2018). "Hotels full as Chennai turns into wedding destination". The Times of India. Chennai. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  13. ^ Siva Prasanna Kumar, J. V. (29 April 2019). "Chennai emerges top among Indian cities in hotel room addition". Deccan Chronicle. Chennai. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  14. ^ "Arrival Percentage from Different Countries to Chennai" (PDF). Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  15. ^ Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.
  16. ^ "Bharatanatyam". Tamilnadu.com. 27 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
  17. ^ "St. Thomas in India". indianchristianity.org. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Chennai Cinema Theatres". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  19. ^ "Chennai Hotels and Restaurants". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  20. ^ "Chennai Pubs and Discs (Discotheques) - Entertainment". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2009.

External links