India is ranked as the 7th most beautiful country in the world among the 'The 50 Most Beautiful Countries In The World' rankings given by Forbes. It is a huge country with a multicultural diaspora enough to attract millions of tourists across the world to India. While the Taj Mahal continues to be the main attraction for foreign tourists, many other hot spots have gained huge attention since the change in the government at the Center in 2014.
With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi making abroad visits a top priority, the relationship of India with other countries has improved in the last almost decade which has also benefitted Indian tourism. As India celebrates National Tourism Day today January 25, here is a sneak peek into how there has been a noticeable rise in Indian tourism after 2014.
A major rise was witnessed in between 2014 to 2019
At present the total revenue coming from tourism in India is around 4.6% of the GDP. Although it is not a priority sector for the government, many schemes like Centre's Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) scheme as well as several schemes from the state governments were initiated from 2014 onwards.
Tourism was at its peak in 2018 and 2019 when 10.56 million and 10.93 million foreign tourists respectively arrived in India. The data from the Bureau of Immigration states that the numbers dropped during the Corona pandemic, and only 6.44 million and 1.52 million foreign tourists arrived in 2022 and 2021 respectively. It was expected as the entire world was fighting the deadly virus.
However, the government became very aggressive in its promotion of Indian tourism post-COVID-19 pandemic introducing many reforms that ultimately gave a significant boost to the tourism sector. As a result, the total FTAs (Foreign Tourist Arrivals) surged in India increased by 406% from January to July 2022 in comparison to the previous year.
The top four nations that contributed towards this increase in FTAs are the US (25.88%), Bangladesh (18.61%), the UK (10.99%), and Australia (5.16%).
Tremendous rise in the number of tourists in 2023
Business Standard reported that there has been a tremendous rise in tourism last year with over 7 million foreign tourists visiting India till October 2023. Notably, it does not include the number of foreign tourists who must have arrived in the country during November and December 2023 which is the peak tourism period.