Going by the statistics released by the latest Economic Survey, India’s tourism sector witnessed a slowdown in 2018-19. “The Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2018-19 stood at 10.6 million compared to 10.4 million in 2017-18. In terms of growth, the growth rate of FTAs declined from 14.2 per cent in 2017-18 to 2.1 per cent in 2018-19,” the Survey stated.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism stood at US$27.7 billion in 2018-19 as compared to US$28.7 billion in 2017-18. “In terms of growth, the FEEs declined from 20.6 per cent in 2017-18 to -3.3 per cent in 2018-19,” the Survey noticed.
In India, the Tourism sector had been performing well with FTAs growing at 14 per cent to 10.4 million and FEEs at 20.6 per cent to US$28.7 billion in 2017-18.
The Survey further states that outbound tourism increased in recent years, with the number of departures of Indian nationals from India, that stood at 23.94 million in 2017 from 21.87 million in 2016, with a growth rate of 9.5 per cent in 2017. This was more than double the foreign tourist arrivals in India.
Also, the growth in domestic tourist visits slowed down from 12.7 per cent in 2016 to 2.4 per cent in 2017. In absolute numbers, there were 1,652.5 million domestic tourists in 2017 compared to 1,615.4 million in 2016.
Amongst centrally protected ticketed monuments, Taj Mahal, Agra (5.66 million) was the most visited monument in 2017-18 for domestic visitors followed by Sun Temple, Konark (3.22 million) and Red Fort, Delhi (3.04 million).
