The tourism sector had a great 2004 with the number of foreign tourist visiting India going up by over 23.5 per cent to cross the 3-million mark for the first time. This signals the sector's rapid progress from a rather sluggish growth in the past decade.
The total number of foreign tourists visiting the country in 2004 was 3.36 million, according to the annual tourist arrival numbers released by the government today.
The figure, however, is low compared with 30 million foreign tourists going to China and the 10 million to Malaysia.
The increase in tourist arrivals can be attributed to the massive government -sponsored Incredible India promotion campaign undertaken in key overseas markets. Steps taken by the government to develop new markets were also a factor.
Tourist arrivals in 2003 was 2.7 million, a growth of 14.3 per cent over 2002. The industry estimates that tourist arrivals to India can grow by 30 per cent in 2005.
Similarly, foreign exchange earnings from tourists arrivals also grew by 36.1 per cent to $4.8 billion in 2004 from $3.5 billion a year ago. It was also pointed out that the increase in foreign exchange earnings can be attributed to the fact that tourists have started to stay in India for longer periods of time.
"There has been an effort to attract tourists round the year as well as to extend their average stay in the country. This is the main reason for the growth in earnings," said a government official.
Travel agents and tour operators are bullish about the growth prospects despite fears that the December 26 Tsunami might have impacted the tourist inflow.
"After the Tsunami tragedy, large-scale cancellations of visits by tourists were being apprehended but so far, no such cancellations have been reported. We expect the growth to continue," said Balbir Mayal, president, Travel Agents' Association of India.
The World Travel and Tourism Council has recently notified India as one of the fastest-growing tourist economies in the world. According to WTTC, Indian tourism is estimated to grow at 8.8 percent, ahead of China, over the next 10 years.
Health tourism was one of the growth areas in 2004. The segment drew approximately 150,000 patients to the country in 2003 and has the potential to attract one million health tourists every year, contributing about $5 billion to the economy.
