FTAs summer rush

After a long hiatus, the foreign tourist arrival numbers have gone up registering growth of 9 per cent. gives details…

The latest data of the tourism ministry showed 4.21 lakh foreign tourists came to India in May as against 3.84 lakh tourists who visited India during the same period last year. There has been a growth of 9.7 per cent in May 2014 over May 2013, as compared to a growth of 2.5 per cent registered in May 2013 over May 2012, according to the data released by the Ministry of Tourism. There was also an increase in issuance of Visas on Arrival ( VoA). In May 2014, 1,833 VoAs were issued as compared to 1,114 VoAs during the same month last year, marking a growth of 64.5 per cent.

As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists, the Visa on Arrival scheme has been launched for 12 countries including South Korea, Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. Last year, India received a dismal 6.5 million, or just 0.6 per cent of the world’s in- bound tourist traffic. Of these, nearly three million were people of Indian origin and tourists from Nepal.

The new government, however, has given some hope by declaring tourism as its top priority. It is one of the 5Ts - talent, tradition, tourism, trade and technology - that the government wants to focus on.