Chennai: Those from the UK appear to have a fascination for India. They continue to top the list of visitors availing e-Tourist visas to visit the country closely followed by the US nationals and the French.
Interestingly, Australia claims an increase in Indian footfall. It welcomed 2,49,200 visitors from India upto September 2016 – an increase of 9.6 per cent during the corresponding period upto September 2015.
A total of 1,05,268 foreign tourists arrived in October 2016 on e-tourist Visa as against 56,477 during October 2015 registering a growth of 86.4 per cent. UK (22.9 per cent) continues to occupy top slot followed by the USA (12.1 per cent) and France (6.6 per cent). Next to them, the visitors from China (5.8%), Russian Federation (5.6 %), Germany (5.5 per cent), Australia (4.5 per cent) Canada (3.6 per cent) , Spain (2.3 per cent) and Netherlands (2.1 per cent) figure in the top 10 list availing e-tourist visas during this October.
Of the over 2.48 lakh visitors from India, 68 per cent of them visited Australia for leisure, while others travelled for business, employment, education and other purposes. Leisure visitors are on holiday (66,000) or visiting friends and relatives (1,04,250).
The Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) has predicted 2,65,000 Indian
visitors for the July 2016 - June 2017 period, which is a 9.6 per cent increase over 2015-16.
The arrivals from India, it is said will add up to the average annual financial year growth rate of 6.4 per cent through to 2021-22 fiscal. Till June 2016, Indian visitors contributed Australian $ 1.1 billion to the Australian economy, an increase of 6 % over the previous year. This makes India the 11th largest source market in terms of expenditure and the average spend per Indian visitor is $4,866.
