Promoting tourism has been a key priority of the Indian government since former Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi started the famous Bharat Utsav programs in various countries in mid 1980s. As per the headline numbers, India has seen some steady growth in number of tourist arrivals in past 20years. The share of India in international tourist arrivals increased over 3x from 0.37% in 2001 to 1.24% in 2018. The share of India in international tourist arrivals in Asia Pacific region has increased from 2.22% in 2001 to 5.05% in 2018.
India ranked 34th in Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, improving significantly from its rank of 65 in 2013. Tourism contributed 5% share to India’s total GDP in 2018-19.
From pure statistical purpose, we may seek some comfort from this data. However, if we consider the rich historical and cultural legacy, treasure of architectural marvels, and geographical diversity of our country, this data appears pathetic. It reflects on the poor tourism infrastructure, poor perception about security and safety of foreign tourists, and lack of control over unscrupulous elements who abundantly fleece foreign tourists. This is in spite of the notional Atithi Devo Bhav (Guest is God) campaign.
The data looks even poorer, when we consider that almost a fifth of the international tourists coming to India are from neighboring Bangladesh. These people usually visit India to meet family or for pilgrimage. Another 23% of tourist come from US and UK. Foreign tourists from the top 10 countries accounted for 67% of the total foreign tourist arrivals in India in 2019. Among the foreign tourists, 57.1% tourists visited for leisure, holiday and recreation, 14.7% for business purposes, and 12.7% was Indian diaspora.
The international tourist arrival growth has slowed down in past three years noticeably. As per the recently released Economic Survey for FY21, —
“9.18 The tourism sector in India had been performing well with Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) growing at 14 per cent to 10.04 million and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) at 19.1 per cent to US$ 27.31 billion in 2017. However, the sector underwent a slowdown in 2018 and 2019 before declining sharply in 2020. The Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2019 stood at 10.93 million compared to 10.56 million in 2018. In terms of growth, the growth rate of FTAs declined from 14 per cent in 2017 to 5.2 per cent in 2018 and further to 3.5 per cent in 2019. Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism stood at US$ 30.06 billion in 2019 as compared to US$ 28.59 billion in 2018. In terms of growth, the FEEs declined from 19.1 per cent in 2017 to 4.7 per cent in 2018, picking up slightly to 5.1 per cent in 2019.”
Personally I find these statistics as a massive opportunity. Given the tourism potential in India, the share of income from tourism sector in India’s GDP could be increased materially from the current less than 5%. This would however need some serious effort from all. We would need to inculcate the right values to our children from primary school level. Honesty, Truthfulness, Cleanliness, and Respect for Women are some of the quintessential traits required for attracting larger number of global tourists.
As an ardent traveler myself, I find the lack of proper sanitation and overwhelming crowd of intimidating touts as the most discouraging factor. Pertinent to note that in the diabetic capital of world there is no public toilet worth use on 300kms road from Haridwar to Gangotri.
