For the first time in the history, the biggest award festival of the Tourism Industry was organized in Asia. And not so surprisingly, India has bagged three major tourism awards for the year gone by.

India has won three top tourism awards from the World Travel Awards (WTA), including for being the world’s best destination.

Apart from winning the award for best destination, it also bagged the award for world’s leading tourist board award for its “Incredible India” campaign and for world’s leading tourist attraction for Taj Mahal, a world heritage site.

The Tourism Ministry has launched the second phase of the Incredible India

campaign where the focus is on destination and products to attract tourists to the country.

In 2011, 6.29 million tourists visited India as compared to 5.78 million in 2010. Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh are among the most visited states of the country.

Of late, tourism has become an instrument for sustainable development including poverty elimination, environmental regeneration and job creation in countries across the world.