Foreign tourist arrivals in India surged by 13.6 per cent to 10.37 lakh in December on year-on -year basis earning foreign exchange of over Rs 16,800 crore, officials said.
"Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the month of December 2016 were 10.37 lakh as compared to 9.13 lakh during the month of December 2015," an official release said today.
The US accounted for the highest share of tourists arrivals, followed by Bangladesh and the UK the last month.
The growth in overseas tourist arrivals in 2016 stood at 10.7 per cent with a total of 88.90 lakh as compared to 80.27 lakh in 2015, it said.
Among the top 15 source countries for December 2016, the share of US was the highest (18.33 per cent), followed by Bangladesh (13.02 per cent), the UK (11.71 per cent), Australia (5.43 per cent), Russia (4.18 per cent), Canada (4.13 per cent) and Malaysia (3.38 per cent).
The share of Germany was 2.80 per cent, while those of China it was 2.53 per cent, Sri Lanka 2.25 per cent, Singapore 2.12 per cent, France 2.01 per cent, Japan 1.79 per cent, Afghanistan 1.38 per cent and Nepal 1.34 per cent.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism during December 2016 were Rs 16,805 crore as compared to Rs 14,152 crore in December 2015, registering a growth of 18.7 per cent.
FEEs during 2016 were Rs 1,55,650 crore with a growth of 15.1 per cent as compared to Rs 1,35,193 crore in 2015.
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