New Delhi: Tourists from the US, the UK and
Bangladesh occupied the top three positions among foreign
visitors coming to India during 2009.
With 8,03,021 Americans visiting the country, the US was
the leading country followed by the UK (7,48,765) and
Bangladesh (4,58,063) among the top 15 source countries for
foreign tourists arrivals in 2009, according to the data
prepared by Tourism Ministry.
The US, the UK and Bangladesh were top three source
countries during 2008 also.
There were a total of 5.10 lakh foreign tourists who
visited India during 2009 as against 5.28 million in 2008, a
decline of 3.3 per cent.
From Sri Lanka and Canada, more than two lakh tourists
came to India last year.
France, Germany, Australia, Japan and Malayasia were
other countries from where more than one lakh tourists came to
India. The number of tourists from Russia (97,705), China
(96,997) and Singapore (94,754) was less than a lakh during
this period.
In 2009, more Indians travelled to foreign countries than
in 2008. 11.07 million Indians visited foreign countries
during 2009 as against 10.87 million in 2008, an increase of
15.5 per cent.
Tourism continues to play a vital role as a foreign
exchange earner for the country with India earning USD 11.39
billion from tourism in 2009.
There was also increase in the number of domestic tourist
visits during this period. In 2009, the number of domestic
tourist visits was 650.04 million as compared to 562.98
million in 2008, with a growth rate of 15.5 per cent.
PTI
