Tourism to contribute $26 billion to India's forex by 2015, says Assocham

India's foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector -growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 13 per cent - are likely to reach $26 billion in 2015 from the current $20 billion, according to a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

Foreign tourist arrivals would cross 8 million by 2015 -- growing at a CAGR of about seven per cent -- from the current of about 7 million, an analysis prepared ahead of the World Tourism Day celebrations (September 27) stated.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Rajasthan are the top five destinations attracting maximum number of foreign tourists and collectively account for 70 per cent of the total foreign tourists visiting India.

Kerala comes eighth with about four per cent in total foreign tourist arrivals after West Bengal and Bihar. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Kerala increased almost two-fold during 2006-2012, from just over 420,000 in 2002 to about 800,000 in 2012.

"Making significant strides in the tourism sector, India has improved its share in international tourism receipts during the course of past decade i.e. from about 0.64 per cent in 2002 to about 1.65 per cent in 2012. Besides, India has also improved its world ranking in this regard from 37th position in 2002 to 16th rank in 2012," said DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham while releasing the analysis.

The Centre should further push the tourism industry as its total contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is about 6.6 per cent, contribution to workforce is about 7.7 per cent and accounts for over six per cent of the total investments. Besides, the foreign exchange earned through tourism is critical to combat the rising current account deficit (CAD), he added.

Foreign tourist arrivals in India has been growing at a CAGR of about 7 per cent which is higher than rate of tourist arrivals across world over which has been growing at about 3.8 per cent and overseas tourism in the Asia-Pacific region that has been growing at about 6.6 per cent.

But India's share in foreign tourist arrivals has increased marginally during the last ten years, from 0.34 per cent in 2002 to about 0.64 per cent in 2012 and India's rank has also improved from 54th to 41st in this regard.