India’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism are slipping.
May recorded $2.13 billion in such earnings, a 1.7 per cent increase year-on-year (Y-o-Y), according to government figures released with a lag. But compare that to March when growth was 33 per cent Y-o-Y and then slipped to 1.2 per cent in April. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism were at a twelve-month low in May.
Earnings were at around $3 billion in December 2023 and January and February this year. In the last four years, the highest earnings were in December 2019 when they reached $3.2 billion. It plummeted to $0.01 billion in April 2020, the lowest since 2019 and time of the pandemic. Fewer than 3,000 foreign tourists visited India in April 2020.
The earnings slowdown is attributed to lower growth in the number of foreign tourists. Such arrivals were down 0.3 per cent in May Y-o-Y to 0.6 million. Foreign tourist inflows have been the lowest since June 2023. After a prolonged decline due to the pandemic, the tourism industry began to recover as travel restrictions eased. Although it had not yet reached the pre-pandemic high of December 2019, when 1.23 million tourists visited, there was a noticeable improvement. The number of arrivals reached 1.07 million in December 2023, the highest since 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism and the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, though numbers have since weakened.
Meanwhile, the number of Indians travelling abroad is at a multi-year high. In May 2024, as many as 2.9 million Indians travelled abroad – a 13.9 per cent Y-o-Y.
Bangladesh is the largest source of foreign tourists visiting India and accounts for 20.3 per cent of all arrivals, according to the report published in May and covering data for the first five months of the year. This is followed by the United States (16.7 per cent), the United Kingdom (10.5 per cent), Canada (4.8 per cent), and Australia. (4.4 per cent).
One-third of the Indians travelling abroad went to two countries in the Gulf: United Arab Emirates (25 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (10.9 per cent). Indians’ other top destinations in May were the United States (7.2 per cent), Thailand (5.9 per cent), and Singapore (5 per cent). The five countries accounted for more than 50 per cent of Indians travel destinations.
The largest city of departure for Indian tourists going abroad is Delhi (23.76 per cent of the total), followed by Mumbai (20.11 per cent). Other major cities for departing Indian tourists include Cochin (7.38 per cent), Chennai (7.2 per cent), and Hyderabad (7.12 per cent).
For each foreign arrival in May, there were five Indian departures.
First Published: Jul 11 2024 | 4:15 PM IS