For international travellers, India remains a distant destination
NEW DELHI : India’s tourism sector is yet to recover from the pandemic years, with international travellers who bring in higher tourism dollars preferring other countries in the Asia-Pacific region over domestic destinations. Despite a resurgence of global travel last year, India welcomed only about 7.24 million international travellers in 2023, according to the ‘India State Ranking Survey’ by hospitality consultancy Hotelivate and The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Prior to the pandemic, in FY20, India received about 10.93 million international travellers, as per India’s tourism ministry. Of them, about 6.98 million were non-resident Indians visiting family and friends back home.
Over the years, India has sharply reduced its spending on international marketing campaigns. The country slashed its budget for its flagship ‘Incredible India’ campaign from ₹100 crore in FY23 to a mere ₹3 crore for the ongoing financial year. India’s share of international travellers last year accounted for only about 3.13% of the 230 million visitors to the Asia-Pacific region in 2023.
China received 35.5 million international tourists in 2023, followed by Thailand at 28.04 million and Malaysia at 14.47 million, according to the report. Overall, though, the Asia-Pacific region is yet to recover to its pre-pandemic levels, with international travellers remaining well below the 347.7 million arrivals recorded in 2018. That said, the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the overall economy of the Asia-Pacific region is estimated to have doubled from $1.3 trillion in FY22 to $2.6 trillion in FY23, according to the Hotelivate-WTTC report.
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