From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Sep 26: While Karnataka is ranked among the top 10 destinations of foreign tourists to India, India’s foreign exchange earnings from the tourism industry is expected to touch US $ 26 billion by 2015.

According to an analysis of international tourist receipts and foreign tourist arrival in India conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) ahead of the World Tourism Day celebrations on September 27, India’s foreign exchange earnings from the tourism industry is growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 13 per cent.

“Growing at a CAGR of about 7 per cent, the arrival of foreign tourists in India is likely to cross 80 lakh mark by 2015 from the current level of about 70 lakh,” the ASSOCHAM said.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are top five destinations attracting maximum number of foreign tourists and collectively account for 70 per cent of the total number of foreign tourists visiting India.

However, Karnataka commands ninth highest share of about 3 per cent in total foreign tourist arrivals in India after West Bengal, Bihar and Kerala.

The number of foreign tourist arrival in Karnataka has increased by about 1.2 times during 2006-2012 from about 5 lakh foreign tourists visiting Karnataka in 2002 to about 6 lakh foreign tourists in 2012, thereby clocking a growth rate of about 18 per cent during this period.

“Making significant strides in the tourism sector, India has improved its share in international tourism receipts during the course of past decade from about 0.64 per cent in 2002 to about 1.65 per cent in 2012,” ASSOCHAM said.

India Climbs from 37th to 16th Rank in 10 Years

Besides, India has also improved its world ranking in this regard from 37th position in 2002 to 16th rank in 2012, said D S Rawat, Secretary General of ASSOCHAM while releasing the chamber’s analysis.

He said the Centre should further push India’s tourism industry as its total contribution to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is about 6.6 per cent, its contribution to the total workforce is about 7.7 per cent and accounts for over six per cent of the total investments.

 In addition, he said the foreign exchange earned through tourism is critical to combat the rising current account deficit (CAD)

Consequently, Rawat felt the government should look to boost foreign tourist inflow by easing its strict visa regime, entering into an agreement with various countries’ through embassies and high commissions to strengthen tourism cooperation aiming at destination development, promotion, marketing and capacity building.

“Importance of tourism as one of the major foreign exchange earner can also be gauged from the fact that during 2012, with over US $ 17 billion earnings tourism emerged as India’s fourth biggest foreign exchange earner after India’s principal exports of petroleum (US $ 60.8 billion), gems and jewellery (US $43.3 billion) and transport equipments (US $ 18.3 billion),” Rawat mentioned.

Globally, US Continues to Dominate

While globally, the international tourism receipts grew from about US $ 482 billion in 2002 to US $ 1,075 billion in 2012, the international tourism receipts in Asia-Pacific region grew from about US $ 96.5 billion to about US $ 323 billion and in India it increased from a level of about US $ 3.1 billion to over US $ 17.7 billion.

Thus in terms of growth in international tourism receipts, India has clocked a CAGR of 12.9 per cent which is higher as compared to 9.5 per cent at Asia-Pacific level and 6.1 per cent globally,the ASSOCHAM analysis said.

In terms of the India’s share in the tourism receipts in the Asia-Pacific region, India has increased its share from 3.2 per cent in 2002 to about 5.5 per cent in 2012 and India has also improved its ranking from 13th to 7th in this regard.

Foreign tourist arrivals in India has been growing at a CAGR of about 7 per cent which is higher than rate of tourist arrivals across world over which has been growing at about 3.8 per cent and overseas tourism in Asia-Pacific region that has been growing at about 6.6 per cent.

But India’s share in foreign tourist arrivals has increased marginally during the last ten years from 0.34 per cent in 2002 to about 0.64 per cent in 2012 and India’s rank has also improved from 54th to 41st in this regard, Raw said.

However, he said in terms of the Asia-Pacific region, India’s share has increased from about 1.9 per cent to about 2.8 per cent during 2002-2012 but there has not been much of change in India’s rank which has improved by just one spot from 12th rank to 11th rank during the period.

The international tourist arrivals has increased from over 703 million in 2002 to about 1,035 million in 2012, while at the Asia-Pacific level the tourist arrivals increased from over 123 million  to about 234 million and in India the foreign tourist arrival grew from over 23 lakh to over 65 lakh during this period.

The United States of commands the highest share of about 16 per cent in the total arrival of foreign tourists across India with over 10 lakh tourists followed by the United Kingdom (UK) (11.9 per cent share) with over seven lakh tourists visiting India from that country. Bangladesh (seven per cent share), Sri Lanka (4.5 per cent share) and Canada (3.8 per cent share) are amid top five countries with maximum foreign tourist arrivals in India.