India continues to gain high income through tourism; over 8.76 lakh Tourists arrived in October

New Delhi, November 13: India has become a centre of tourism since few years due to various efforts were taken by the central government which also led a massive surge in the economy of a country. Notably, the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) have registered a comprehensive growth of 18.1% in October 2017 in the country. The number of FTAs in October 2017 was 8.76 lakh as compared to FTAs of 7.42 lakh in October 2016 and 6.83 lakh in October 2015.

 

The Ministry of Tourism compiled monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) & FTAs on e-Tourist Visa on the basis of Nationality-wise, Port-wise data received from Bureau of Immigration (BOI). The following are the important highlights regarding FTAs & also FTAs on e-Tourist Visa from tourism during the month of October 2017.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs): 

· The number of FTAs in October 2017 was 8.76 lakh as compared to FTAs of 7.42 lakh in October 2016 and 6.83 lakh in October 2015.

· The growth rate in FTAs in October 2017 over October 2016 has increased to 18.1%, compared to 8.6% in October 2016 over October 2015.

· FTA during the period January- October 2017 was 79.96 lakh with a growth of 15.8% over same period of the previous year, compared to FTAs of 69.05 lakh with a growth of 9.6% in January- October 2016 over January- October 2015.

· The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October, 2017 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (21.66%) followed by USA (11.57%), UK (10.23%), Sri Lanka (3.79%), Canada (3.36%), Germany (3.17%), Australia (3.07%), France (2.81%), Russian Fed. (2.81%), Malaysia (2.76%), Japan (2.44%), Thailand (2.10%), China (1.93%), Nepal (1.66%) and Rep. of Korea (1.48%).

· The percentage share of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during October 2017 among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (32.56%) followed by Mumbai Airport (14.02%), Haridaspur Land Check Post (11.29%), Chennai Airport (6.10%), Bengaluru Airport (5.19%), Kolkata Airport (4.55%), Gede Rail Land Check Post (3.02%), Cochin Airport (2.70%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport, (2.58%), Hyderabad Airport (2.53%), Sonauli Land Check Post (1.86%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.77%), Ghojadanga Land Check Post (1.64%), Amritsar Airport (1.53%) and Trivandrum Airport (1.20%).

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) on e-Tourist Visa: 

· During the month of October 2017, a total of 1.76 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1.05 lakh during the month of October 2016 registering a growth of 67.3%.

· During January- October 2017, a total of 12.43 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 7.81 lakh during January- October 2016, registering a growth of 59.2%.

· The percentage share of top 15 source countries availing e- Tourist Visa facilities during October 2017 was as follows:

UK (18.2%), USA (9.7%), France (6.3%), Germany (6.0%), Australia (4.3%), Russian Federation (4.1%), Canada (3.9%), Thailand (3.7%), China (3.7%), Korea (Rep.of) (2.6%), Spain (2.3%), Oman (2.2%), Italy (2.2%), Netherlands (1.9%) and Malaysia (1.6%).

· The percentage share of top 15 ports in foreign tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during October 2017 was as follows:

New Delhi Airport (53.0%), Mumbai Airport (16.6%), Bengaluru Airport (5.5%), Chennai Airport (5.3%), Dabolim (Goa) Airport (4.5%), Kochi Airport (3.5%), Kolkata Airport (2.5%), Hyderabad Airport (2.4%), Amritsar Airport (2.0%), Trivandrum Airport (1.1%), Ahmadabad Airport (1.0%), Jaipur Airport (0.7%), Gaya Airport (0.6%), Calicut Airport (0.4%) and Tirchy Airport (0.4%).