Pak, China emerging tourist sources: Ficci

Pakistan and China are emerging as major east Asian tourist sources for India, as visitor inflow from the countries registered a 31% rise in 2005.

About 88,609 people from Pakistan visited India in 2005 as compared to just 10,364 in 2003, according to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Tourist arrival from China was 44,897 in 2005 as against 34,100 in 2003.

There was, however, a modest decline in number of visitors from Bangladesh and Bhutan in 2005 as against an otherwise upward trend, the chamber added.

This surge in visitors from Pakistan and China is mainly due to confidence building measures (CBM) by business bodies since 2003-2004, Ficci said in a statement.

"Emergence of China as a fast-growing tourist source could be attributed to the intensive campaign launched by the government and the large number of business delegations coming from the provinces of China," Ficci said.

India continues to attract the maximum number of visitors from the United Kingdom.

The top 10 tourism source markets for India in 2005 were the UK (6,51,083 tourists), the US (6,11,165), Bangladesh (4,56,371), Canada (1,57,643), France (1,52,258), Sri Lanka (1,36,400), Germany (1,20,243), Japan (1,03,082), Malaysia (96,276) and Australia (96,258).