New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) India seems to find favour with Americans and Britons, as they accounted for the maximum of nearly 5.1 million tourists to this country.
According to sources in the tourism ministry, about 803,021 Americans visited India in 2009, while 748,765 Britishers came here.
But the tourist number was higher in 2008 from these two countries. While 804,933 Americans came in 2008, about 776,530 were Britons.
About 5.1 million tourists visited India in 2009, against 5.2 million in 2008.
Last year, tourist figure saw a dip with the Mumbai terror attack and the global meltdown, sources said.
Bangladesh continued to draw the third largest number of tourists in the country for the second consecutive year, although the figure saw a dip. While last year, the figure was 458,063, it was 541,884 in 2008.
Sri Lanka came fourth with 240,836 visitors to India in 2009.
Canada came fifth with about 221,448 Canadians visiting the country last year.
This is followed by France (195,307), Germany (193,557), Australia (148,846), Malaysia (134,340), Japan (124,219), Russia (97,705), China (96,997), Singapore (94,754), Nepal (87,487) and Italy (77,995).