Mumbai: India as a tourist destination for foreign travellers
saw a major setback last year. Foreign tourist arrivals and foreign exchange
earnings saw their biggest fall in 2015 since 2010, as per data available on
the official website of the ministry of tourism.
Growth in foreign tourists arrival dropped to a five-year low
of about 4% with a total of around 8 million visiting the country by the end of
last year.
Similarly foreign exchange earnings saw negligible growth of
just 0.1% at $19,676 million, the lowest since 2010. In the previous year, both
foreign tourist arrivals (FTA) and forex earnings saw a growth of 10.6% and
6.6%, respectively.
While the ministry has not given any specific reasons for the
sharp drop in FTA, many in the travel and hospitality industry attributed the
decline to the global financial slowdown, China Visa particularly in key
source markets like Russia, Germany, France and many Far East Asian countries.
This has forced many tourists across the globe to tighten their travel budgets.
“The global slowdown is one of the reasons why India has not
seen much of travellers coming to India. There are lesser people travelling.
Markets like Russia slowed down. India sees a fair number of travellers from
there. While business travellers may be up, it’s actually the leisure travelers
that have gone down,” said Manav Thadani, chairman, HVS Asia Pacific, a global
hospitality consulting firm. Thadani is also the chairman of the World Travel
& Tourism Council-India Initiative (WTTCII).
According to a report ‘World Economic Situation and
Prospects, 2016’ by the United Nations, the global economy has seen major
challenges last year due to macroeconomic uncertainties, low commodity prices,
rising volatility in exchange rates and capital flows among other things. Not
just the developed economies, developing nations like China and other South
East Asian countries also felt the impact of the financial slowdown.
Ghulam Zia, executive director (advisory-retail and
hospitality), Knight Frank India, a global property consultant, also agreed
that foreign tourist arrivals in India has seen a major hit due to slowdown in
the global economy, particularly Russia and other Asian countries, from where a
major chunk of tourists visit India.
“Pretty much every country and economy is going through a
tough time and most of the tourists used to be from Russia and Far East and
these markets have been the worst affected. Obviously, there is little money to
spend from the global economies. So when global tourists do not have money in
their pocket to spend, India is definitely not the top place for them to
visit,” Zia said.
He said unless the global economy shows signs of improvement,
major initiatives planned by the Indian government like launching a new
‘Incredible India’ campaign or providing electronic visa to foreign travellers
to India would not reap much benefit in the near future.
[Source: http://www.livemint.com/Money/5PECclHq0O70NQhDaeJ0kL/Foreign-tourist-arrivals-forex-earnings-falls-to-5year-low.html]
