New Delhi, July 9 (Inditop.com) India’s share in international tourist arrivals is rising, but it gets far fewer number of visitors compared to Singapore, a city-state half the size of Delhi.
Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed Thursday told parliament that the growth rate in tourist arrivals in India was high in 2006-07.
But in the actual number of tourists coming to the country, India lags far behind Singapore and Thailand, two hugely popular attractions in Asia.
India’s growth rate in tourism was 14.3 percent in 2006-07. This stood at 4.9 percent in Singapore and 4.6 percent in Thailand.
Only Sri Lanka, then hit by a violent ethnic conflict, saw the rate plunge by 11.7 percent.
But while Singapore was visited by 7.59 million tourists in 2006 and 7.96 million in 2007, India played host to 4.45 million tourists in 2006 and 5.08 million the next year.
Thailand got 13.82 million tourists in 2006, the figure rising to 14.46 million in 2007.
The first few months of 2008 saw tourist arrivals in India go up but there was a slump later in the year due to the global meltdown and the terror attack in Mumbai, Ahmed said.
He said the arrival figures do not include non-resident Indians.
Ahmed said his ministry was undertaking a series of promotional activities to woo more tourists.
A Visit India 2009 campaign has been launched in collaboration with all stake holders including airlines, hotels, tour operators as well as state governments, he said.
