India 2023 foreign exchange earnings from tourism could reach pre-covid 2019 levels
foreign exchange earnings from tourism during the four-month period during January-April were at ₹71,235 crore compared with ₹23,584 crore in the same period in 2022, as per the ministry. To put in perspective, India earned a total of ₹2.1 trillion in foreign exchange from tourism in 2019, an increase of 8.3% year-on-year. Going by the latest data, experts believe India is well placed to meet 2019 foreign exchange earnings from the tourism industry.
In a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, tourism minister G Kishan Reddy said India saw about 21.9% of foreign tourist arrivals from Bangladesh, followed by the US, from where 16.3% of total travellers came, another 10.3% from the UK, 5% from Canada, 4.5% from Australia. "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.
Tourism has got a boost this year with India’s G20 presidency, which has led to more than 200 meetings and events planned at over 60 locations across the country. About 23.7% of all foreign arrivals during January-April comprised the Indian diaspora. A large number of travellers, about 50%, came for a holiday or recreational purpose and about 11% came for professional reasons.
Around 6% visitors during this time came for medical tourism. In terms of departures, during the four-month period under review, 84.73 lakh Indians travelled out of the country, compared to 53.21 lakh a year ago, and 87.96 lakh in 2019.
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