The slump in India's tourism industry continued in November this year as a result of the September 11 attacks on the United States and Washington's retaliation against Afghanistan.
Government data released on Monday showed that November arrivals fell by 25 per cent to 205,713 from 276,254 a year earlier, following a 20 per cent slump for September-October.
The downturn dragged down the total arrivals for the first 11 months of the year by 4.8 per cent to 2.23 million from 2.34 million during the same period in 2000. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism during the first 11 months of the year fell by 3.2 per cent to $2.764 billion from $2.854 billion.
Tour operators, airlines and hotels had reported a large numbers of cancellations after the September 11 attacks in the US. After the defeat of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, however, the industry is optimistic and expects an upturn at least in the first quarter of next year.
