Hit by the double blow of a global meltdown and worldwide television coverage of flaming hotels and exploding trains, India appears to have picked a hell of a time to announce 2009 as "Visit India Year." But they have, and are trying to regain momentum.
Tourism, which had been growing by 15 to 20 percent annually, is experiencing its worst downturn since numbers have been recorded. Tourism arrivals, according to the Ministry of Tourism, fell by 2.1 percent in November year-on-year for the first time in six years, while foreign exchange earnings from tourism plummeted by 12.5 percent to US$1 billion for the same period.
Industry analysts say the ministry's projection of doubling foreign tourist arrivals to 10 million by 2010 from the current 5.08 million seems dead on arrival. This is indeed unfortunate considering tourism is a top revenue grosser for the country, earning over Rs364.6 billion (US$7.52 billion) in foreign exchange earnings last year. The sector was expected to create millions of new jobs*.
According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, foreign exchange earnings per foreign traveler coming to India were US $2112 in 2007, more than twice that earned per foreign travelers worldwide (US$948) as well as Asia Pacific (US$1,027). In fact, most major Asian tourism destinations like China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand earn much less foreign exchange per foreign traveler as compared to India.
The hospitality sector’s woes have been compounded by travel alerts issued by a clutch of countries -- including the US, Australia, Singapore and Australia -- advising their citizens against travel to India in the wake of the November Mumbai massacre in which 160 people were slaughtered by Islamic militants over three days, with many of the deaths occurring in some of India’s most famed hotels. Although the alerts have been withdrawn, they had an immediate damaging impact on tourism which was already caught in the throes of the global meltdown.
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1652&Itemid=225
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