According to Indian government, over six million tourists visited the country in 2012 and country’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism sector went up.

New Delhi, Jan 1/Nationalturk – Over six million tourists visited India in 2012 and country’s foreign exchange earnings from tourism sector went up by 22.1 per cent over the same period in 2011.

An official spokesman said despite negative signals from global economy, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in India in 2012 showed an increase of about 6 % over the same period of 2011. “During the period January- November 2012, about six million tourists visited India against 5.7 million tourists in 2011”.

He said the foreign exchange earnings from tourism in rupee (Indian currency) during  2012 ( up to November) was Rs.83,938 crores. “It was up by 22.1% over the same period in 2011.The foreign exchange earnings during 2011 was Rs.68,721 crores”.

The spokesman said India signed an MoU with and ASEAN in 2012, which would serve as the key instrument for more action oriented cooperation, encouraging both parties to cooperate in facilitating travel and tourist visit and further strengthening the close tourism partnership.

Road shows conducted in Saudi Arabia

The official spokesman said Ministry of Tourism with the objective to tap the high end touristsfrom  Saudi Arabia  organised Tourism Road Shows in the cities of Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah in 2012.

He said  India is fast emerging as a preferred destination for the Saudi tourists.  “During 2010 there has been an increase of nearly 38% in the inbound tourism from Saudi Arabia to India with around twenty two thousand tourists.”

Two new campaigns launched

The spokesman said India Tourism  launched two new campaigns : an International Campaign called ‘Find What You Seek’ and a Domestic Campaign called ‘Go Beyond’. “These campaigns where launched at the recently concluded “World Travel Market-2012”, which was held at London. The launch of these campaigns reflects a very important paradigm shift in our strategy to promote India within the country and abroad. The ‘Go Beyond’ campaign focuses on promoting lesser known destinations to domestic as well as international tourists,” he said.

“The Visa on Arrival (VoA) Scheme of the government has become popular with the tourists. The scheme registered a growth of 25% during the period January-November 2012 over the corresponding period of 2011. A total number of 13,903 VoAs were issued during the period January-November 2012 as compared to 11,121 VoAs issued during the corresponding period of 2011,” the spokesman said .

He said highest number of 3913 VoAs were issued to tourists from Japan followed by New Zealand (2645) and Philippines ( 2205).

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk India News

 

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