Tourist footfalls from the US to India in 2017 have increased by over six per cent as compared to previous year, government said, countering an American report that claimed there was a decline during the period.

The Ministry of Tourism in a statement said foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) from the United States has never declined since 2010.

"FTAs in India from the USA during the year 2017 have registered a positive growth of 6.17 per cent over the year 2016," the statement said.

A report of National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) had recently said the outbound tourists from the USA to India have declined by 7 per cent in the year 2017 as compared to 2016, it said.

According to the said report released by NTTO, traveller volume is based on the US Department of Homeland Security Advanced Passenger Information System wherein all airlines are required to electronically submit passenger data on flights arriving into and departing from the United States.

The ministry said that it was obvious that the source of data for the report is only airlines reporting. In the cases where direct flight between the USA and India is not operating, it is not known whether the final destination or the transit destination is reported as India by the passengers.

Moreover, departures at international check posts other than airports are not captured in the report. Therefore, it may not contain the complete information on the outbound departures from the USA, it said.

On the other hand, the Bureau of Immigration of India (BoI) compiles the data of (FTA) from the records of scanned passport of each person arriving at all the international check posts in India, which include airports, sea ports and the land check posts. The FTAs from USA in India during January - August this year was 9,26,192, 8.8 per cent higher than the corresponding numbers during the same period last year.

NTTO in its recent report had said that the US tourist arrivals in India had dipped for the first time in eight years.