Foreign tourist arrivals increase 9.2 percent in Oct

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India for the duration of the October 2010 grew 9.2 pct to 487,000 as compared to 446,000 during the month of October 2009 and 450,000 in October 2008, according to a information by Ministry of Tourism. Against the apprehension of decline in the FTAs in Delhi due to Common wealth Games, the FTAs at Delhi airport actually registered an increase of 5.1 percent in October 2010 compared to October 2009, the report said.

FTAs during the period January-October 2010 grew 9.9 percent to 4.32 million as compared to the FTAs negative growth rate of 6.7 at 3.93 million during January-October 2009 over the matching period of 2008.Foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism grew 8.6 percent to 52.19 billion rupees during the month of October 2010 as compared to 48.06 billion rupees in October 2009 and 42.48 billion rupees in October 2008.

FEE during the period January-October 2010 grew 21.1 to 513.34 billion rupees as compared to FEE growth of 4.1 percent at 423.95 billion rupees during January -October 2009 over the corresponding period of 2008.Indian government has launched a scheme of visa on arrival (VoA) to attract more foreign tourists from January 2010 for citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. During the period January - September 2010, a total number of 4,493 VoAs were issued under this Scheme.

Based on the information received from the Immigration authorities at Delhi airport regarding the FTAs at Delhi airport during 1st to 14th October, 2010 (Commonwealth Games period) the number of FTAs stood at 75606, according to the Ministry report.