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Americans, Britons visited India the most in 2008

si Team
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
si Team
Americans and Britons continue to top the list of foreign arrivals in India. According to the latest figures published by the Tourism Ministry, out of the 5.37 million foreign tourists who visited India last year, 827,866 were Americans and 787,197 were Britons.

The arrivals from Britain saw a decline of 1.1 percent in 2008, while that from the U.S. rose by 3.6 percent. However, there is a decline in the number of travelers coming from the neighboring Pakistan. Interestingly Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the other neighbors, were third and fourth on the list, accounting for 540,092 and 228,548 tourists respectively. During the same period, 223,587 Canadians, 217,816 French and 209,252 Germans visited India, followed by the Japanese (150,732), Australians (148,055) and Malaysians (119,040).

In 2007, about five million travelers had visited India (nearly double from 2000), according to the Tourism Ministry. Visitors from the U.S. accounted for 15.7 percent of the total.

According to a statement made by the Tourism Ministry, “Tourists from these 10 countries constituted about 64.34 percent of the total arrivals to India.” However, there is a reduction in the numbers from five countries including Pakistan, Finland, and South Africa. Arrivals from Pakistan reduced by 25.1 percent and from Finland and Kenya by 10 percent, compared to 2007. The number of travelers from Mauritius and South Africa fell by 8.5 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.

The first five months of 2009 showed a sharp decline in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the country, compared to the same period in 2008. However, officials say that a slight increase has been witnessed from June. In other areas, the maximum growth was seen in tourists from West Asia and Eastern Europe in 2008, an increase of 20.9 percent and 18.5 percent over that of 2007.
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