Tourism: India lags behind Asian peers

Despite registering a growth in the number of foreign tourists, India continues to lag behind other neighbouring countries, including China, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong, in terms of tourist arrivals.

While the number of foreign tourists who visited India stood at 2.73 million in 2003, the figure rose to 3.46 million in 2004 and further to 3.92 million in 2005, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni told the Rajya Sabha.

However, in comparison to the 3.92 million tourists who visited India in 2005, China received 47.11 million visitors, Hong Kong 23.40 million, Thailand 11 million and Indonesia 4.85 million.

But India was better off than neighbouring countries Sri Lanka and Nepal which received 0.57 million and 0.35 million tourists respectively in 2005.

While figures for Pakistan were not available for 2005, the neighbouring country received 0.50 million tourists in 2003 and 0.65 million visitors in 2004.

Soni said while the government has not fixed targets for foreign tourist arrivals, it has taken a number of steps to attract more visitors, such as launch of the 'Incredible India' campaign, direct co-operative marketing with the airlines, tour operators and wholesalers overseas, greater focus on emerging markets particularly in the region of China, Northeast, Asia and Southeast Asia and use of Internet and web marketing.