The Delhi heat or the Mumbai rains have not deterred the foreign tourists to flock to Indian peninsula. Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism increased by more than nine per cent in May 2013 over May 2012. Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) also went up by more than 3.2 per cent during the month of May 2013 as compared to May 2012.
Approximate data released by the Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday shows that May received a footfall 3.84 foreign travellers as compared to 3.72 last year. FTAs during the period January to May 2013 were 28.63 lakh with a growth of 2.1 per cent, as compared to the FTAs of 28.05 lakh during January to May 2012.
Foreign exchange from tourism during January to May 2013 was `43,412 crore with a growth of 16.5 per cent, as compared to the FEE of `37,275 crore during January to May 2012.
While the figures for both the tourists and foreign exchanges may have brought some cheer, but the Ministry officials say that they are far from reaching their set targets. “We have a target of getting 80 lakh tourists by 2015. last year, we could only get 66.4 lakh tourists. While we are performing better than the rest of the world but we still have a long way to go,” said a Ministry official.
“Our footfalls have improved from the previous month, which is definite relief. We are in continuous talks with the Home Ministry to ease visa norms,” said the official.
The Tourism Ministry is fighting hard with the Ministry of Home Affairs to get visa norms simplified to help increase foreign tourist footfalls. On Wednesday, the Ministry officials will meet senior officials from the Home Ministry to discuss whether visa on arrival facility could be extended to 17 more countries as so far it is offered to 11 countries.
In a recent measure, aimed to ease the immigration process, the Tourism Ministry has worked on the immigration form to make it postcard size, with just basic questions. The Ministry is also working on doing away with disembarkation for home-bound Indian tourists as well as embarkation for foreign tourists. last month, the Ministry had allowed visa fee payments for foreigners using debit and credit cards, saving them time.
Earlier this year, the Ministry had extended the Visa-on-Arrival facility from four to nine airports, which included Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Trivandrum and Goa alongside the four metropolitan cities. A Home Ministry order dated April 1, 2013 also gave a go-ahead to collective landing permits to foreign travelers visiting India in groups of four or more.