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Indian tourism shows signs of growth
Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 19:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Indian tourism finally has something to smile about with an increase in the number of foreign visitors since the start of the year.
The trend is showing signs of picking up, say travel industry bigwigs.
"There has been a slight increase in inbound travel with fears about the killer flu SARS dying down. More people from Southeast Asian destinations have started arriving here for business and holiday over and above the pre-booked groups," Madan Kak, senior manager of TCI India, told IANS.
The golden triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra remains the favourite among foreign tourists.
Slowly but surely however "ever-smiling Kerala, the beach charms of Goa, the unexplored destinations in the northeast and the Himalayan destinations are also proving a big draw", added Vikas Kanduri, regional manager of global travel major Cox and Kings.
June being one of the hottest months in India is generally off-season for inbound travellers, yet this year business is not too bad in the travel and tourism sector.
Alongside there is an increase in outbound travel, with Indians escaping the heat for holidays in Europe. The flow to Southeast destinations too has started with the lifting of travel advisories to destinations like Singapore and Hong Kong that were badly hit by SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Said Subhash Goyal, president of the Confederation of Tourism Professionals of India and chairman of Stic Travels: "The trend that saw some diversion of traffic from Southeast Asian destinations to India, in preference to inter-regional travel, has been beneficial for us. This trend is likely to show a rise once the tourism season begins in earnest from September."
According to the tourism ministry, foreign tourist arrivals from January to April recorded an 11 percent increase. During the four-month period, about 939,000 tourists visited the country in comparison to 845,000 visitors in the corresponding period of 2002.
India receives barely 2.5 million foreign tourists annually, comparing poorly with several destinations in the Asian region.
India's foreign exchange earnings from tourism during January-April also registered about 15 percent increase over those of the corresponding period last year with a total of $1.13 billion.
With China and Taiwan resuming flights to India, traffic on both sides is expected to pick up in the coming days. In the past one week, traffic on Southeast Asian airlines too has picked up considerably.
"One does not like to say it, but India has definitely benefited from the SARS scare in some of the evergreen regional destinations," said a senior tourism ministry official.
SARS claimed 745 lives worldwide, with most fatalities reported from Hong Kong and China.
Said Kanduri of Cox and Kings: "Tourist inflow to India and towards destinations like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong is definitely bouncing back. During the peak of SARS, some of the tourism traffic got diverted to India. After a dip in April, now the traffic is again picking up."
While overseas travel continues with a boom in outbound flow to Europe, domestic tourism has also proved to be very vibrant this year, said trade representatives.
"Inbound travel has definitely picked up with some of the traffic from regional destinations tripping to India. This winter is going to go well both for outbound and inbound traffic with a boom in short haul destinations showing mettle," said Kanduri.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS