Tourist arrivals in India on the surge

After the double blow received unexpectedly in the form of world recession which was compounded further by the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the tourism industry in the country is finally showing signs of a steady recovery and the upturn is witnessed with tourist arrivals registering a healthy positive growth for the first time in over six months. While the increase may be a shade marginal over last year, the turnaround itself is raising sounds of cheers amongst the tourism fraternity and the tourism ministry is also upbeat since the foreign exchange earnings have also gone up by over Rs 400 crore.

According to data collected by the tourism ministry, the foreign tourist arrivals increased from 3.40 lakh in June 2008 to 3.41 lakh in June 2009 while foreign exchange has gone up from Rs 3,409 crore to Rs 3,801 crore for the same period. Although the growth in the number of tourists may be marginal, it has demonstrated that the Visit India campaign and the various roadshows have made a contribution to arrest the decline within a period of over six months

The last six months were however not very good for the tourism  sector. In January-June 2009, the number of tourist arrivals in the state was recorded ar 24.678 lakh, which is down from 27.19 lakh in 2008 for the same period. India has recorded a fall of over 10% in the flow of foreign nationals traveling to the country since the November 26 terror attacks in Mumbai last year.