Published on : Friday, June 28, 2019
The four-day road shows, organised by the Indian government along with industry stakeholders, received enthusiastic response from US tour operators, officials said
here.
“The road show has reflected that there is a lot of interest among Americans to visit India and explore its rich cultural and historical heritage as well as adventure and medical
tourism,” said Meenakshi Sharma, Director General (Tourism).
Sharma is leading a high-powered Indian tourism delegation to Washington DC, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco in the US and Vancouver in Canada. On an average 1.2 million
American tourists visit India every year. The Department of Tourism has set the goal of increasing it by 10 per cent every year, which she said is doable.
In her presentation before the key American stakeholders and tourism partners, Sharma talked about the various experiences that American tourists can have in India, starting from heritage to fair and festivals, cuisine and
shopping. The focus, this time, she said, is more on themes rather than on destination. India accounts for just 1.2 per cent of the world tourism share and India’s earnings in terms of World Tourism Receipts is 2.1 per cent, she said. This reflects that, travellers coming to India are spending more, and India is just getting started, Sharma said.
However, the growth of foreign tourist arrival in India (14 per cent in 2017) is much faster than rest of the world (6.8 per cent), she said. In her presentation, she said that India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, with 18 of the 125 airports being international airports and as many as 23 airports have been developed and upgraded in the last five years.
As part of its efforts to promote tourism, India has extended e-visa facility to 167 countries. In 2018, 274,000 Americans visited India through e-visa facility. The government has also extended e-visa facility for tourist, business, medical and
cruise, she said.