INDIA TOURISM

Tourism in India has already started showing signs of early recovery from the impact of global economic meltdown and in December 2009 tourist arrivals grew substantially by 21 % registering a growth of over 8% over the arrivals in December 2007 which was a year of high growth. One of the reasons for the tourism sector in India not being impacted as much as rest of the world was the good performance of the Indian economy. Inspite of the global economic recession in 2008 and 2009, Indian economy has continued has continued to have good growth. India’s GDP in 2008-09 grew by 6.7%. During April-September, 2009 India’s GDP has seen a growth of 7%, whereas the global economy is estimated to have a negative growth in 2009.

The quantum jump in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Hotel & Tourism sector in the years 2008 and 2009 is also indicative of the positive scenario. Most of the major international hotel chains including Starwood, Hilton, Carlson, etc. have either already come to India or are in the process of doing so. These factors, coupled with the performance of in-bound tourism in India the last few months, are very encouraging for tourism in India. With the global economy too showing signs of recovery, the international tourism can be expected to revive worldwide.

CONTRIBUTION OF TOURISM SECTOR TO INDIAN ECONOMY

Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for India, tourism contributed 5.83 per cent of total Gross Domestic Product and 8.27 per cent of total employment in the country during 2002-03.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) and foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism in India during the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 are given below:-

Year	FTAs (in million)	FEE (in US $ billion)
2007	5.08	10.73*
2008	5.28	11.75**
2009	5.11 @	11.39**

@ Provisional, * Revised Estimates

** Advanced Estimates

The Ministry of Tourism is focusing on preservation and enrichment of natural and cultural resources to ensure positive impact on environmental protection and community development. In order to create awareness, the Ministry of Tourism organized four conferences in 2008 across India on themes of responsible tourism, community participation and empowerment and waste management, etc. These conferences were held in association with UNDP and various stakeholders. The Ministry also provides Central Financial assistance to States/UTs for development of eco-tourism projects. Promotion and marketing of eco-tourism products have been carried out in domestic and overseas markets.

Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has now prepared the provisional Country-wise distribution of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) for 2009. A statement giving the details of FTAs for Top 15 countries is attached.

The following are the important highlights of the country-wise FTAs for 2009:

Ø Though the overall FTAs declined by 3.3% in 2009 over 2008, FTAs from some regions of world observed positive growth; Africa (17%), Central and South America (9.6%) and South East Asia (4.7%).

Ø The share of top 15 countries was almost same (72.9%) in 2009 as compared to 72.6% in 2008.

Ø The ranks of top 8 countries remains the same (number one being USA, followed by UK, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.). There has been changes in the ranks of the countries from 9 to 15. Nepal is the new entry to top 15 in place of Republic of Korea. While Russia and Malaysia have gained in the rank, Japan, China, Singaporeand Italy have lost rank.

Ø The share of USA has marginally increased from 15.2% in 2008 to 15.7% in 2009 even though the absolutenumber of FTAs have marginally decreased during this period for USA.

Ø The largest decline in the share, from 10.3% in 2008 to 9.0% in 2009, is for Bangladesh (rank 3).

Ø The Share of other top 15 countries have seen only marginal changes in 2009 as compared to 2008.

Ø Out of the total decline of 1.74 lakh in the FTAs in 2009 as compared to 2008, top 15 countries accounts for 65% of the decline.

Ø The largest decline of 48% was observed for Bangladesh followed by UK 16%, and Japan 12%.

Ø Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Russia and Australia have even seen an increase in the FTAs of 12.7%, 10.7%, 3.8%, and 1.5% respectively in 2009 over 2008.

Ø Among other countries largest positive growth during 2009 over 2008 was observed for Kenya (63.1%), followed by Afghanistan (56.5%), Nigeria (26.7%), Brazil (25.9%) and Argentina (18.5%). However, the individual share of these countries in total FTAs was very small.

Ø As regards, the decline among other countries in FTAs in 2009 over 2008, it was highest for Pakistan (46.7%) followed by UAE (32.2%), Sweden (26.4%) and Bhutan (23.5%). Again these countries contributed quite less in the overall FTAs of the country.

TOP 15 SOURCE COUNTRIES FOR FTAs IN INDIA DURING 2008 & 2009
Rank in 2008	Country	FTAs inIndia in 2008	% Share in 2008	Rank in 2009	Country	FTAs inIndia in 2009	% Share in 2009
1	United States	804933	15.2	1	United States	803021	15.7
2	United Kingdom	776530	14.7	2	United Kingdom	748765	14.7
3	Bangladesh	541884	10.3	3	Bangladesh	458063	9.0
4	Canada	222364	4.2	4	Sri Lanka	240836	4.7
5	Sri Lanka	218805	4.1	5	Canada	221448	4.3
6	France	207802	3.9	6	France	195307	3.8
7	Germany	204344	3.9	7	Germany	193557	3.8
8	Australia	146209	2.8	8	Australia	148846	2.9
9	Japan	145352	2.8	9	Malaysia	134340	2.6
10	Malaysia	115794	2.2	10	Japan	124219	2.4
11	China	98093	1.9	11	Russian Fed.	97705	1.9
12	Singapore	97851	1.9	12	China	96997	1.9
13	Russian Fed.	91095	1.7	13	Singapore	94754	1.9
14	Italy	85766	1.6	14	Nepal	87487	1.7
15	Republic of Korea	79802	1.5	15	Italy	77995	1.5
Total of top 15 Countries		3836624	72.6	Total of top 15 Countries		3723340	72.9
Others		1445979	27.4	Others		1385239	27.1
Grand Total		5282603	100.0	Grand Total		5108579	100.0