Yet to take off

Foreign tourist arrivals are growing at a healthy pace, but India’s share of global traffic and receipts is still woefully low.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the first six months of the current year grew year on year with the exception of May, while tourism receipts also clocked a healthy growth of 12.9 per cent for the same period, according to a report from the Ministry of Tourism.

The report said that in 2017, foreign tourist arrivals grew 14 per cent year on year to reach 10.04 million, while forex earnings from tourism rose 15.4 per cent to touch Rs.1,77,874 crore.

However, despite these impressive figures, the country has a long way to go in the global scenario: it stood 26th in global tourist arrivals and ranked 13th in world tourism receipts in 2017. India’s share in international tourist arrivals was just 1.17 per cent.

The United States was the topper, earning $210.7 billion and accounting for 15.82 per cent of global tourism receipts, followed by Spain ($68 billion), France ($60.7 billion), Thailand ($57.5 billion) and Italy ($44.2 billion). India earned $27.3 billion, accounting for just 2.05 per cent.

Bangladesh was the top source of all foreign tourist arrivals in 207, with 21,56,557 visitors, accounting for 21.49 per cent of the total. It was followed by the United States (13,76,919), the United Kingdom (9,86,296), Canada (3,35,439) and Australia (3,24,243).

In 2017, the number of domestic tourist visits to all States and Union Territories reached 1,652.49 million. It crossed 1 billion for the first time in 2012 and has stayed above that level ever since.

Delhi was the top destination of arrival In 2017, with 28,45,076 tourists, accounting for 28.35 per cent of the total, followed by Mumbai (15,77,669), Haridaspur (11,73,093), Chennai (7,18,905) and Bangalore (5,67,945).