Foreign tourists arrival up by 18 per cent in September

Chennai: With Chennai airport continuing to dominate in receiving foreign nationals, the tourism ministry has registered a growth of over 18 per cent in foreign tourist arrivals in the country in September 2017 as against 12.1 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

The country received 71.20 lakh foreign footfalls clocking a growth of 15.5 per cent from January to September this year.

Last year, India received FTAs of 61.63 lakh. Those from Bangladesh (29.65 per cent) topped among the countries who visited the country followed by USA (10.24 per cent), UK (7.04 per cent), Sri Lanka (3.98 per cent), Australia (3.50 per cent), Malaysia (3.32 per cent), Germany (2.57 per cent), Japan (2.50 per cent), China (2.46 per cent), Canada (2.40 per cent), Nepal (2.30 per cent), France (1.86 per cent), Singapore (1.77 per cent), Rep. of Korea (1.40 per cent) and Afghanistan (1.21 per cent).

Arrivals on e-tourist visa also up:  September also saw a total of 1.18 lakh tourists arriving on e-Tourist Visa compared to 0.69 lakh during the month of September 2016 registering a growth of 71 per cent.  A total of 10.67 lakh tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa this year. The percentage shares of top 15 source countries availing e-tourist visa facilities during September 2017 are:
UK (12.1%), USA (10.2%), China (6.3%), Australia (5.5%), Germany (4.9%), France (4.3%), Spain (3.9%), Israel (3.2%) Korea (Rep.of) (3.2%), Oman (3.2%), Canada (3.1%), Singapore (2.6%), UAE (2.2%), Malaysia (2.1%) and Italy (2.1%).