According to the recently unveiled Economic Survey 2019-20, foreign tourist arrival growth in India slowed down to 2.7 per cent in the span of January-October 2019 with the global trend.
The survey highlighted that the Indian tourism sector, which is a major engine of growth, had witnessed a strong performance from 2015 to 2017, with high growth in foreign tourist arrivals. However, the growth of foreign tourists arrival (year-on-year) slumped down to 5.2 per cent in 2018 and 2.7 per cent in January-October 2019.
While, it is not just India which has seen a downward turn in growth of foreign tourist arrivals, even the growth in international tourist arrivals globally also slowed from 7.1 per cent in 2017 to 5.4 per cent in 2018, the survey highlighted.
The survey also stated that the growth in foreign exchange earnings from tourism sector has slowed in 2018 and 2019 after registering strong growth until 2017. “Foreign exchange earnings totalled USD 24 billion in January-October 2019, with a growth of 2 per cent,” it said.
Taking about market share, India now accounts for 1.24 per cent of world’s international tourist arrivals and 5 per cent of Asia & Pacific’s international tourist arrivals. In terms of foreign exchange earnings from tourism, India ranks 13th in the world and 7th in Asia & Pacific.
The survey said visitors from the top 10 countries – Bangladesh, USA, UK, Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, China, Germany and Russia – accounted for 65 per cent of the total foreign tourist arrivals in India. Among foreign tourists, 62.4 per cent visited India for leisure, holiday and recreation, 16.3 per cent for business purposes, and 13.5 per cent was Indian diaspora, it added.
With the e-Visa scheme available for 169 countries, the survey said foreign tourist arrivals to India on e-visas increased from 4.45 lakh in 2015 to 23.69 lakh in 2018, and stood at 21.75 lakh in January-October 2019, recording nearly 21 per cent year-on-year growth from the previous year.
