General Overview Of Tourism Sector

1. During the period 2002 to 2008, India witnessed an increase in the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) from 2.38 million to 5.37 million resulting in the average annual increase of about 14.5%. Due to global slowdown, terrorist activities, H1N1 influenza pandemic, etc., growth rate in FTAs during 2008 was only 5.6%.





However, the growth rate for India was higher than that observed for the world (2.0%). The growth rate in FTAs during January to October, 2009 was (-) 0.9% over the corresponding period of 2008 which is an improvement over the decline of 8.06% in August, 09 and 4.1% in September, 09.

2. Another important indicator to judge the performance of tourism sector is the Foreign Exchange Earning (FEE) from tourism. FEE from tourism increased from Rs. 15064 crore in 2002 to Rs. 50730 crore in 2008, registering an average annual growth rate of 22.4%. The growth rate for FEE from tourism in Rupee terms, during January-October, 2009 was 4.1% over the corresponding period of previous year. The total Foreign Exchange Earnings during this period were Rs.42,395 crore or US$ 8.7 billion.

3. Domestic tourism is also very vital for the overall development of tourism in the country. The number of domestic tourist visits increased from 270 million in 2002 to 563 million in 2008. Growth rate in domestic tourist visits in 2008 over 2007 was 6.9%.

4. The contribution of tourism in the country’s GDP and total jobs was 5.92% and 9.24% during 2007-08. Total number of tourism jobs in the country during 2007-08 were 49.8 million.

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