India slipped three notches in the list of countries earning foreign exchange from international tourists in 2008 mainly due to security concerns intensified by the Mumbai terrorist attacks and a strong rupee making the country a more expensive destination.
The country received $11.75 billion forex during this period and was ranked 23rd, the latest government data has said. Some of the smaller countries such as Austria and Turkey are well ahead of India in the ranking. Foreign tourist arrivals into the country, however, increased 5.6% to 5.37 million in 2008. Foreign exchange earning also grew 9.5% over 2007.
The US continued to be the top foreign tourist source market for India. Every sixth foreign national coming to the country was an American citizen.
“Though the growth in foreign tourist inflow was positive, it was far less compared to the double digit growth in the previous years. Also, the value of rupee fluctuated a lot compared to dollar last year,” a tourism ministry official said.
Global economic slowdown has adversely affected the Indian tourism sector with the first six months’ growth in 2009 entering into negative zone. The number of foreign tourists coming to India stood at 2.47 million in January-June period, down 9.3% compared to the same period last year.
The sector is expected to further see a dip in arrivals as tourists are rethinking their travel plans due to the swine flu scare.
“We have seen some cancellations due to swine flu. A group of tourists from the UK have just cancelled their trip. They had booked with us for a tour on palace-on-wheels luxury train,” Treasure Tours managing director Iqbal Mulla said.
The government has taken a lot of initiatives to minimise the impact of slowdown on the tourism sector. The tourism ministry along with airlines, hotels and tour operators is offering promotional packages to foreign tourists. It has also tied up with private hospital chains such as Max and Apollo for incentivising medical tourists.
India ranks 41st in the world in terms of foreign tourist arrivals. Its share in the international tourism receipts and foreign tourist arrivals are 1.24% and 0.58% respectively.
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