Terror threat, swine flu scare and hike in air fares hit the tourism sector hard in 2009 with number of foreigners visiting the country dropping by over 6 per cent but the tourism ministry is now looking up to the Commonwealth Games to reverse the trend.
Foreign tourist arrivals continued to dip despite the Visit India 2009 scheme launched by the government offering several concessions to woo tourists. While 4.54 million foreigners visited the country during January to November, the number was 4.85 million in the same period last year. In November alone, the number of foreign tourists was 518,000 as against 532,000 last year.
Attributing the decline to global financial slowdown, terror threat and swine flu scare, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja, who took the reins from her predecessor Ambika Soni in the mid-year, hoped “some of the measures, including visa on arrival scheme and Commonwealth Games would bring good results in the coming year 2010”.
Though the guidelines are yet to be finalised, the introduction of the visa on arrival scheme for five countries — Singapore, New Zealand, Finland, Luxemburg and Japan — on a pilot basis is expected to increase tourist arrival in the country. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism sector increased, however, with the country earning Rs 5,523 crore last month, as compared to Rs 4,935 crore in November 2008.