Foreign tourists in India fell sharply even before the corona virus outbreak

Growth of foreign tourist arrivals to India slowed down to 2.7 per cent in January-October period of 2019 in tune with the global trend, according to the Economic Survey 2019-20. 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, the survey tabled in Parliament on Friday said.

"However, foreign tourist arrivals growth (year-on year) has decelerated since then to 5.2 per cent in 2018 and 2.7 per cent in January-October 2019," it said.

This trend, however, is not unique to India, as the growth in international tourist arrivals globally also slowed from 7.1 per cent in 2017 to 5.4 per cent in 2018, it added.

As a result, the survey said 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.

In 2018, India ranked 22nd in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals, improving from the 26th position in 2017.

"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," it said.

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.

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