International Tourism in India– Perception of Foreign Tourists

Taking into consideration the unique, vast and varied tourist resource potential of India, there is tremendous scope for development of International Tourism. Aware of its rich treasure, India, in fact has consistently been trying to allure more and more world trotters, ever since its independence. Incidentally its performance has so far remained too marginal, especially in view of the existing potential, though there has been steady increase in the tourist influx over the years. Talking statistically, the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India continued to grow from 1.28 million in 1981 to 1.68 million in 1991, 2.54 million in 2001, 6.31 million in 2011 and reached to 7.68 million in 2014. During the year 2014, India registered a positive growth of 10.2 %. The share of India in international tourist arrivals in 2014 was increased to 0.68%, from 0.61% in 2010, and the share of international tourism receipt was 1.58% in 2014 with Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) of US $ 20.24 billion. However, India's rank in the world was 41 in 2014. India accounted for 2.92% of the tourist arrivals in Asia Pacific Region in 2014, occupying 12th ranks in the region, but none the less the fact remains that the country is desperately trying to make out its rightful place in global tourism. The present study examines India's performance in International tourism market over the years and a look into foreign tourists' perspective on various aspects of Tourism in India.