India welcomes 31.33 lac foreign tourists till April, 21.9pc from BD

Dhaka: India welcomed 31.33 lac foreign tourists during the first four months of 2023, up from 11.77 lac foreign tourists during the same period in 2022, as per data received from the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

Of the 31.33 lac foreign tourists, India witnessed about 21.9 per cent of foreign tourist arrivals from Bangladesh, 16.3 per cent from the USA, 10.3 per cent from the UK, 5 per cent from Canada, and 4.5 per cent from Australia.

Also, about 23.7 per cent of all foreign arrivals during January-April comprised the Indian diaspora.

About 50 per cent travellers came for a holiday or recreational purpose, about 11 per cent for professional reasons and around 6 per cent for medical tourism.

Despite the increase, foreign tourist arrivals remained lower than pre-covid levels of 2019, when the number stood at 39.54 lac in the comparable period.

At the Rajya Sabha held on July 20, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said, "As per provisional data received from (the) Bureau of Immigration, the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India during January to April, 2023, reached 79 per cent of FTAs during the same period in 2019," Reddy said.

Also, foreign exchange earnings from tourism during the four-month period stood at Rs 71,235 crore compared to Rs 23,584 crore during the same period in 2022, according to the Ministry.

It may be mentioned here, India earned a total of Rs 2.1 trillion in foreign exchange from tourism in 2019, with an increase of 8.3 per cent year-on-year.

The latest data shows that India is well placed to meet 2019 foreign exchange earnings from the tourism industry.