IMPHAL, Jan 7: The Foreign Tourists Arrivals (FTAs) in India during 2010 were 5.58 million with a growth rate of 9.3% as campared to the FTAs of 5.11 million and growth rate of (-) 3.3% during 2009.
According to a release of PIB Imphal, the 9.3% growth rate in FTAs for 2010 over 2009 for India is much better than UNWTO,s projected growth rate of 5% to 6% for the World during the same period.
The release further mentioned that, Foreign Exchange Earning (FEE) from tourism during 2010 were US $ 14193 million as compared to US $ 11394 million during 2009 and US $ 11747 million during 2008. The growth rate in FEE in US $ terms during 2010 was 24% as compared to a decline of 3% in 2009 over 2008. Therefore, in US $ terms, also growth rate observed in 2010 was positive and substantially high.
On the other hand, during 2010, a total number of 6549 Visa on Arrival (VoA) were issued under VoA scheme which was introduced from January 1 last year for citizens of five countries including Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore, visiting India for tourism purposes the release added.
It is also further mentioned that, the number of visas issued under this scheme, during January-December last year for nationals of the five countries were Singapore (1814), New Zealand (1944), Japan (1457), Finland (1263) and Luxembourg (71).
The total number of VoA issued during December, last year were 905 with country wise breakup as Finland (140), Japan (216), New Zealand (340), Singapore (191) and Luxembourg (18). During the year 2010 (January-December), the maximum number of VoAs were issued at Delhi airport (3493), followed by Mumbai (1511), Chennai (1211) and Kolkata (334), the release added.
