Foreign tourist arrivals and earnings up in India

New Delhi : Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the month of September, 2012 were 4.15 lakh as compared to FTAs of 4.02 lakh during the month of September 2011 and 3.70 lakh in September 2010 in India .
There has been a growth of 3.2 % in September 2012 over September 2011 . FTAs during the period January-September 2012 were 46.33 lakh with a growth of 5.9%, as compared to the FTAs of 43.75 lakh with a growth of 9.9 % during January-September 2011 over the corresponding period of 2010.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) during the month of September 2012 were Rs. 6652 crore as compared to Rs. 5748 crore in September 2011 and Rs 4678 crore in September 2010.
FEEs in US$ terms during the month of September 2012 were US$ 1219 million as compared to FEEs of US$ 1208 million during the month of September 2011 and US$ 1015 milion in September 2010.
FEEs from tourism in terms of US$ during January- September 2012 were US$ 12492 million with a growth of 5.1%, as compared to US$ 11886 million with a growth of 18.7 % during January- September 2011 over the corresponding period of 2010.
Progress of Tourist Visa on Arrival Scheme in September 2012
Likewise, a total number of 1404 (Visa on Arrivals) VoAs were issued under this Scheme in September as compared to 991 VoAs during September 2011 registering a positive growth of 41.7 %.
During the period January-September 2012, a total number of 10816 VoAs were issued as compared to 8505 VoAs during corresponding period of 2011, registering a growth of 27.2%.
The number of VOAs issued under this scheme during September 2012 for nationals of the eleven countries were Japan (541), New Zealand (256),The Philippines (236), Indonesia (175), Singapore (135), Finland (29), Myanmar (11), Vietnam (9), Cambodia (6),Luxembourg (4) and Laos (2). The number of VoAs issued under this scheme, during January-September 2012 were Japan (3106), New Zealand (2045), Indonesia (1689), The Philippines (1678), Singapore (1313), Finland (647), Vietnam (126), Myanmar (73), Cambodia (68), Luxembourg (62) and Laos (9). During the period January-September 2012, the highest number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (6380), followed by Mumbai (2247), Chennai (1528) and Kolkata (661).
As a facilitative measure to attract more foreign tourists to India, Government launched a Scheme of “Visa on Arrival” (VoA) in January 2010 for citizens of five countries, viz. Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes. This scheme was extended for the citizens of six more countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar from January 2011. Source – PIB / India