Foreign tourist arrivals in March 2016 has recorded 12.1 per cent growth over the same period last year, according to Ministry of Tourism’s monthly compilation of estimates of FTAs on the basis of nationality-wise, port-wise data received from Bureau of Immigration (BoI) and foreign exchange earnings (FEEs) from tourism on the basis of data available from Reserve Bank of India. Bangladesh accounted for highest share of FTAs, followed by the UK and USA. Whereas, foreign exchange earnings through tourism in March 2016 is estimated at ₹13,115 crores.
FTAs during March 2016 were 8.17 lakhs as compared to 7.29 lakhs during March 2015 and 6.90 lakhs in March 2014. FTAs during January-March 2016 were 25.08 lakhs with a growth of 10 per cent as compared to 22.81 lakh with a growth of 3.5 per cent in January-March 2015 over January- March 2014.
The percentage share of FTAs in India during March, 2016 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (14.07 per cent), followed by UK (13.16 per cent), USA (11.84 per cent), Germany (3.74 per cent), Canada (3.57 per cent), Sri Lanka (3.48 per cent), Malaysia (3.45 per cent), Russia (3.19 per cent), China (2.92 per cent), France (2.92 per cent), Australia (2.83 per cent), Japan (2.43 per cent), Nepal (1.72 per cent), Singapore (1.67 per cent) and Thailand (1.60 per cent).
The percentage share of FTAs among the top 15 ports was highest at Delhi Airport (33.82 per cent), followed by Mumbai Airport (15.97 per cent), Haridaspur Land check post (7.83 per cent), Chennai Airport (7.30 per cent), Bangaluru Airport (5.44 per cent), Goa Airport (4.05 per cent), Kolkata Airport (4.02 per cent), Cochin Airport (3.76 per cent), Hyderabad Airport (2.72 per cent), Gede Rail (1.67 per cent), Amritsar Airport (1.63 per cent), Ahmadabad Airport (1.63 per cent), Trivandrum Airport (1.48 per cent), Tiruchirapalli Airport (1.34 per cent) and Gaya Airport (0.96 per cent).
FEEs during March 2016 were ₹13,115 crore as compared to ₹11,133 crore in March 2015 and ₹10,479 crore in March 2014. The growth rate in FEEs in rupee terms during March 2016 over March 2015 was 17.8 per cent as compared to the growth of 6.2 per cent in March 2015 over March 2014. Whereas, FEEs from tourism during January-March 2016 were ₹40,411 crore with a growth of 15.9 per cent as compared to the FEE of ₹34,875 crore with a growth of 3.6 per cent during January-March 2015 over January- March 2014.
