List of tourist attractions in Chennai
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Chennai was ranked 9th in travel guide Lonely Planet's 2015 top 10 cities ranking.[1]
Tourist arrival statistics
Chennai had been the most visited city in India by foreign tourists consecutively from 2010[2]
to 2012,
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[update], 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]
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
- MGR Memorial, Anna Memorial and Jayalalitha Memorial. The Marina's 6 km promenade includes statues of several historical figures including Mahatma Gandhi, Annie Besant, Robert Caldwell, Thiruvalluvar, Bharathiyar and Kamrajar.
MGR Samadhi in Marina Beach - Elliot's Beach, also known as Besant Nagar beach begins where the Marina ends. The beach is famous for its calm atmosphere and is preferable among morning walkers. The iconic Karl Schmidt memorial, named after the Dutch sailor who lost his life in the process of saving others from drowning is located at the heart of Elliot's beach.
- Blue Flag Beach
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 skyevery 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.
- 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
- Anglicanchurch in India, and Wellesley House, which holds the paintings of the Governor of the Fort and other high officials of the Regime.
- Chennai Centralrailway station.
- British architecturein Chennai. Built in 1888 as a town hall for the city of Madras and named after Queen Victoria to commemorate the golden jubilee.
Wildlife
- Vandalur Zoo) is located south-west of the city. Covering an area of 1490 acres, it is India's largest zoo. It has about 2200 animals belonging to 170 different species including of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The zoo also has a lion safari, an elephant safari, a nocturnal animal house, walk-through aviary, butterfly house, reptile house and a crocodile enclosure. The park has tree-lined paved paths for long treks inside the campus, enabling the visitors to walk 15 to 20 kilometres (9.3 to 12.4 mi) during a visit. Battery-operated vehicleswith a range of up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) are available for rent.
- Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, located south of the city, along the East Coast Road, is an important centre for herpetological research. It houses several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, turtles and snakes. Founded by Romulus Whitaker in 1976, the CrocBank now has a total of 2,483 animals, including 14 species of crocodiles, 10 species of turtles, 3 species of snakes, and 1 species of lizard. The bank is home to 14 species of the 23 crocodilian species living across the world, two of which are listed by the IUCN as critically endangered and three more as threatened.
- National Park with an area of 2.76 km2 and is located completely inside the city. It hosts a variety of endangered deer, foxes, monkeys and snakes. The Guindy Snake Park situated in the National Park has a large collection of snakes and is an important source of antivenomserum. For ex-situ conservation, about 22 acres (8.9 hectares) of the Guindy National Park has been carved out into a park which is known as the Children's Park and play area at the northeast corner of the national park with a collection of animals and birds.
- Pallikaranai Marshland Park
Nature
- Adyar estuary area to restore the vegetation of the freshwater eco-systems of the Coromandel Coast, especially the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary and creek. A total of 143 species of fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles have been seen in the park and the number is expected to go up to 200. More than 85 different kinds of birds, including rare black bittern, cinnamon bittern, black-winged kite, white-bellied sea eagle, pied kingfisher, yellow wagtails and black-winged stilthave been spotted by ornithologists in the green expanse.
- Chetpet Lake, also known as Chetpet Eco Park is a lake spread over 15 acres and is the only lake in the centre of the city. The lake became a tourist attraction from 2014 after it underwent a remarkable transformation from being a heavily encroached filthy lake to having clean water with facilities for boating, angling, water sports and beautifully surrounded by a park.
- banyan tree, which was known locally as Adyar aala maram, whose aerial roots covered some 60,000 sq m. and is situated in the middle of the Theosophical Society Campus. One of the largest banyan trees in the world, it continues to miraculously survive and even thrive despite severe storm damage to its main trunk in 1989.
Art and Crafts
- living history museumrun by the Chennai Craft Foundation, is a depiction of the way of life prevalent in 5 south Indian states collectively called as South India with exhibitions and workshops of the arts and crafts and performing artists of South India. There are around 4,220 artefacts on display; 3,200 are art-related, and 70 pertain to contemporary subjects.
- Besant Nagar. Founded in January 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale, the institution achieved national and international recognition for its unique style and perfectionism.[16]
- Cholamandalam Artists' Village, on the East Coast Road, offers a view of artists and sculptors at work in their own studios and permanent gallery.
Places of Worship
- and has inscriptions dating back to 12th century is one of the most visited worship places by tourists visiting the city.
- .
- Mother Mary) was built in 1523 on top of the mount.
- Spain.
- Armenian Church of Virgin Mary, is located on the Armenian Street in Parrys. Constructed in 1712, it is one of the oldest churches of the Indian subcontinent and is famous for its belfry of six.
- St. Mary's Church located at Fort St George, is the oldest Anglican church East of Suez and also the oldest British building in India. The church is popularly known as the 'Westminster Abbey of the East'.
- Thousand Lights Mosque, a multi-domed mosque opened in 1810 and spread over an area of 3 acres, it is one of the largest mosques in India and is situated on Anna Salai Road. It is said that 1000 lights needed to be lit in order to illuminate the assembly hall and hence it was named Thousand Lights Mosque. It is also believed that the lights were lit by the Indian National Congress to mark their first visit to Madras.
- Nawab of Arcot. It is considered as the largest mosque in the city of Chennai.
Shopping
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
- 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 Cornerare 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 Marketin 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
Gallery
-
Santhome Basilica
-
Interior of Santhome Basilica
-
Chettinad Palace
-
Chennai viewed fromSt. Thomas Mount
-
War Memorial
-
Schmidt memorial at Elliot's beach
-
Government Museum at Egmore
-
Valluvar Kottam
-
Aringar Anna Zoolological Park in Vandalur
-
The Victoria Public Hall
See also
- Hotels in Chennai
References
- ^ "Chennai in Lonely Planet 2015 list of top 10 cities to visit". The Economic Times. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2010". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ "Chennai High: City gets most foreign tourists". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
- ^ a b "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2012". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2011". Euromonitor International. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
- ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2009". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ http://www.timeofindia.com Times of India, 2 June 2008
- ^ "Top 100 Cities Destination Ranking 2013". Euromonitor International. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ Bremner, Caroline. "Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2014" (PDF). Euromonitor International. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ a b Bremner, Caroline. "Top 100 City Destinations Ranking 2015" (PDF). Euromonitor International. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^ Thomas, Liffy; Deepa H. Ramakrishnan (1 June 2012). "New hotels beckon the business class". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- ^ Chandramouli, Rajesh (27 April 2018). "Hotels full as Chennai turns into wedding destination". The Times of India. Chennai. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994.
- ^ "Bharatanatyam". Tamilnadu.com. 27 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ "St. Thomas in India". indianchristianity.org. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ "Chennai Cinema Theatres". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ "Chennai Hotels and Restaurants". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ "Chennai Pubs and Discs (Discotheques) - Entertainment". lifeinchennai.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2009.