Page 143 - Hospitality Horizon - February-March 2021

TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE

for signposts is the figures for the three pre-Covid
19 years of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In terms of foreign exchange earnings from
tourism, the figures are US$27,310 million in 2017
(a 19.1 per cent growth over 2016), US$28,586
million in 2018 (a modest growth of 4.1 per cent
over 2017) and US$30,058 m in 2019 (a growth
rate of 5.1 per cent over 2018). India’s share of
world tourism receipts is US$30 billion out of a
world total of US$1,478 billion which amounts to a
share of 2.03 per cent with the United States
heading the table with earnings of US$214.1 billion
with a share of 14.49 per cent.
Tourist arrivals country-wise in 2019 shows that
the largest were from Bangladesh, 2.5 million
(23.8 per cent), followed by the United States, 1.5
million (13.8 per cent), 1 million (9.1 per cent) from
the United Kingdom, Australia 36.7 lakh (3.36 per
cent), Canada 3.15 lakh (3.22 per cent), China
Mainland 3.39 lakh (3.11 per cent), Malaysia 3.34
lakh (3.06 per cent), Sri Lanka 3.3 lakh (3.03 per
cent), Germany 2.64 lakh (2.42 per cent) and the
Russian Federation 2.51 lakh (2.3 per cent). The
numbers are quite impressive though the
potential is many times over.
The number of domestic tourists, on the other
hand, in 2017, 2018 and 2019 stands at 1,657.55
million, 1853.79 million, 2321.98 million
respectively, with a growth rate of 2.6 per cent in
2017 compared to 2016, 11.8 per cent in 2018 over
2017, and 25.3 per cent in 2019 (provisional figure)
over 2018.
It is a temptation for policy makers both in the
government and in the private sector to think of
ways of expanding the sector because the

“TO HELP DOMESTIC TOURISM
REVIVE, IT IS IMPERATIVE TO
REASSESS AND REIMAGINE

HOW INDIA CAN LEVERAGE ITS
RICH CULTURAL AND NATURAL
HERITAGE AND PROMOTE LESS-

TRAVELABLE DESTINATIONS.”

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hospitality horizon FEBRUARY-MARCH 2021