A Comparative Study on Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India

ABSTRACT India has been in the midst of foreign tourist’s itinerary for several decades now. Foreigners have been visiting this mysterious land of Maharaja’s for centuries. India stands at the saddle of varied attractions and point of interest for people coming from different parts of the world. India with its culture, customs, liveliness and hospitality, along with breathtaking wilderness has successfully positioned itself into the top ranked countries of visitation by foreigners. The recent stance of current administration and their policy measures by making visa available online (Visa on Arrival or VOA) have also encouraged newer foreign tourists to see the cultural richness of this country. The local bodies and state governments also played a crucial role in maintaining the places and sites of tourist attraction so well, that flow of tourists continued and shall be so in future as well. The present age belongs to service industry and India has huge scope in that direction by establishing properly and nurturing its long deprived and ignored tourism industry in a more professional and systematic way. The point of planning and encouraging the tourism sector remains attracting and retaining foreign tourists in country and directing them to the different parts. As the experience has shown again and again, that India has the full potential to attract and engaged foreign tourists with its vast array of attractions ranging from historical monuments to urban landscape, from wildlife attractions to natural sceneries, but due to certain hurdles and policy’s implementation the full potential of India is yet to be realized. Though in recent years the standing of India among most visited countries in the world has surely improved and if things and plans fall into the right direction, the ranking shall keep on improving. As the recent data furnished by Government of India, foreign tourists contributed a large sum in foreign exchange earnings and also encouraged the local employment opportunities in both organized and non-organized sector. The present paper is an attempt to make the fact firm that foreign tourist arrival is valuable in many aspects as they contribute into the economy of the country and encourage state governments as well as the local bodies to take care of the sites and monuments, as they become the earning avenues for state as well local bodies. Apart from that this study further compares the foreign tourist arrivals of four year in a row i.e. 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. It also provides the earning details from foreign tourist arrival. Further the study underlines the causes for low turning in of foreign tourists and suggestion along with policy measures to boost/ increase the numbers of foreign tourist arrivals. This paper is based on secondary information furnished by Govt. bodies, departments and councils regarding the foreign tourist arrivals and earnings (In INR). This study is an honest effort to find out the fluctuations in foreign t