Kolkata, Oct 29: After a sustained decline for the past three years, the foreign tourist inflow in the country has registered a 16% growth during January-October, ’03 against the same period last year, according to the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI). “The foreign tourist inflow, which plummeted since ’00, has increased by 16% during the first 10 months of ’03,” FHRAI secretary general Shyam Suri told newspersons here today.
The inflow of foreign tourists during ’03, he said, was likely to increase to the level achieved in ’00. Since ’00, when 2.6m foreign tourists visited the country, the number steadily declined to 2.5m in ’01 and 2.4m in ’02, he said. The reasons for the decline, Mr Suri said, were the 9\11 terrorist strikes on the US, border tension between India and Pakistan and government advisory to tourists in countries like the US and UK — which contribute over 40% of foreign tourist inflow in India — not to visit certain places in the sub-continent.
Out of the total number of foreign tourists visiting the country, 75% were leisure travellers while the rest 25% were business travellers, he said.
Bureau Report