Now here's some good news. Despite the economic slowdown and fears of a global pandemic, the domestic tourism industry is cruising along
well. Both foreign tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings from tourism—considered key barometers for the hospitality sector—have seen positive trends in July 2009.
According to ministry of tourism data, 4.32 lakh foreign tourists arrived in India in July 2009 compared to 4.29 lakh in July 2008. Even on month-on-month terms, there has been a surge in numbers from June 2009 to July 2009—from 3.41 lakh foreign tourists in June 2009, July saw an increase of 91,000.
"Occupancy levels at hotels across south India certainly improved in July 2009 over June 2009. There seem to be some encouraging signs of revival. It remains to be seen if the positive trend would sustain," T Nataraajan, secretary, South India Hotel and Restaurant Association, said. Some in the industry attribute the increase to a rise in number of NRIs returning home during the holiday season in the west.
"Foreign tourists arrivals have gone up because of the increase in the number of ethnic travellers coming to the country. Ethnic travellers are NRIs. It is the holiday season abroad, so more NRIs would be opting to come back at this time," said Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook.
Foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism (in rupee terms) too has witnessed an increase. FEE during July 2009 was Rs 4,983 crore compared to Rs 3,870 crore in July 2008. An improvement was observed in growth rate of FEE in July 2009 (28.8%) as well when compared to June 2009 (11.5%) when earnings were at Rs 3,801 crore.
"The rupee has depreciated since the same period last year, so there is an increase in foreign exchange earnings," Menon said.
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