Terror, slowdown may be behind dip in foreign tourist arrivals

Government today said foreign tourist arrivals in India witnessed a 3.3% drop last year and cited terrorism, global  meltdown and swine flu as the possible reasons for the decline.

"In 2009, the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India declined by 3.3% as compared to 2008... This decline in 2009 may be due to various reasons including terrorist attacks, global slowdown and H1N1 pandemic," minister of state for tourism Sultan Ahmed said while replying to a question in the Lok Sabha. 

He said the decline in the number of foreign tourists from 5.28 million visitors in 2008 to 5.11 million in 2009 has "adversely impacted" the hospitality industry in the country.

The minister said that during 2008, the growth rate in FTAs was 4%, which was "considerably less than the growth of 14.3% in 2007 over 2006."

Ahmed said foreign exchange earnings from tourism was estimated to decline from $11.75 billion in 2008 to $11.39 billion in 2009.

He said the number of Indian Nationals Departures had gone up from 9.78 million in 2007 to 10.87 million in the subsequent year.