Tourism in India on path of recovery after Covid-19 pandemic, receives 6.19 million foreign tourists in 2022

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, April 7

Hampered by Covid-19, India’s embattled tourism industry appears to be on the path of recovery after the pandemic.

Counted among the largest service industries and job providers in the country, the Centre on Thursday said the tourism sector has shown “good signs of revival after Covid-19 pandemic”, posting numbers showing both increase in foreign tourists arrivals as well as foreign exchange earnings.

Culture and Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy told the Parliament that India received 6.19 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2022 as compared to 1.52 million during the same period in 2021.

India’s foreign exchange earnings through tourism rose to Rs 1,34,543 crore (according to provisional estimates)in 2022 against Rs 65,070 crore in 2021.

India had seen 10.93 million FTAs in the pre-pandemic year 2019.

Meanwhile, efforts are also being made to tap G20 meetings and highlight what India has to offer.

“Effort is being made to ensure that G20 delegates visiting these destinations go back as tourism ambassadors,” according to an official statement.

G-20 push

India has declared “Incredible India! Visit India Year 2023”.

G20 meetings are being held at 55 destinations. Infrastructure at these cities are being augmented and upgraded for G20 meetings.

At the same time India’s tourism is also being highlighted.

“Excursion of delegates is also organised to nearby tourist attractions. Effort is being made to make G20 delegates visiting these destinations go back to their countries as tourism ambassadors. Important tourism sites and facilities are being upgraded to international standards,” officials say.

Incredible India

The Tourism and hospitality industry is one of the largest service industries, providing heritage, cultural, medical, business and sports tourism.

The main objective of the sector is to develop and promote tourism, maintain the competitiveness of India as a tourist destination and improve and expand existing tourism products to ensure employment generation and economic growth.

The industry in India plays a role of significant economic multiplier and becomes critical since India has to grow at rapid rates and create jobs, the government site states.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021 ranked India 54th position (down from 46th in 2019) with a score of 4.1.

India continues to be the top performer in South Asia.

Global toppers include Japan, the US, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, UK, Singapore and Italy.

Experts say that India has improved considerably in business environment, overall T&T policy, enabling conditions, infrastructure, information and communications technology, etc., but gaps and scope for improvement remains in areas like environmental sustainability, etc.

The WEF Index assesses 117 economies, based on 5 sub-indexes, 17 pillars and 112 individual indicators, distributed among different pillars.

Government schemes

The Centre under the schemes like Swadesh Darshan, PRASHAD and Assistance to Central Agencies, provides financial assistance to states andcentral agencies for development of tourism related infrastructure and facilities to provide an enriching tourism experience to visitors in a planned and phased manner, according to the statement.

The Ministry has taken several initiatives to give boost to the sector and increase FTAs like 24×7 multi-lingual tourist info-helplinein 12 languages, including 10 international languages, and e-visa facility in five sub-categories—e-Tourist visa, e-Business visa, e-Medical visa, e-Medical Attendant visa and e-Conference visa—for nationals of 166 countries.

“E-visa has been further liberalised and the visa fee substantially reduced, new mountain peaks have been opened for mountaineering/trekking to give a boost to adventure tourism in the country.

“The GST on hotels rooms with tariff of Rs 1,001 to Rs 7,500/night has been lowered to 12% and above Rs 7,501 to 18% to increase India’s competitiveness as a tourism destination 59 tourism routes have been awarded to the identified airlines under the RCS UDAN scheme”, it adds.