Bangladeshi tourists contribute to growth of Indian economy

The Indian exchequer has witnessed a massive growth due to the tourism inflow from Bangladesh.

New Delhi Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 Nov 2015, 06:30 PM
Updated : 10 Nov 2015, 06:44 PM

Disclosing this, officials in the Indian Tourism Ministry said that the country earned Rs 96.11 billion of foreign exchange through tourism in October 2015.   

“Bangladesh accounts for the highest share of tourist arrivals in the same period, whereas tourist arrivals from Pakistan yielded the lowest,” a government official said.

The Ministry of Tourism compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) on the basis of nationality-wise, port-wise data received from the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) and from Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism, on the basis of data available from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The data show that India recorded 1.7 percent growth in foreign tourist arrival in October 2015 over the same period in the previous year.

Bangladesh led the top 15 source countries in terms of FTAs during October. The statistics shows that Bangladesh recorded 15.22 percent, followed by USA 12.99 percent, UK 11.31 percent, Sri Lanka 3.69 percent, Germany 3.62 percent, Canada 3.58 percent, Australia 3.37 percent, Malaysia 3.03 percent, France 3.01 percent, Nepal 2.67 percent, China 2.55 percent, Japan 2.42 percent, Russia 2.03 percent, Singapore 1.65 percent, and Pakistan 1.59 percent tourist arrivals.

These top 15 countries account for 72.73 percent of total FTAs during October this year.

The Foreign Exchange Earning (FEEs) from tourism in terms of rupees in January-October 2015 was over Rs 1 trillion, with a growth of 2.5 percent as compared to the FEE of Rs 989.01 billion which saw a growth of 16.3 percent during January-October 2014 over January- October 2013.

“Several initiatives adopted by the government of India including relaxation on visa on arrival have also been contributing to the earnings from the tourism sector,” the official said.