A mixed bag for India’s tourism sector in 2010

New Delhi: Notwithstanding its failure to woo 100,000 foreign tourists during the Commonwealth Games as targeted, ‘Incredible India’ attracted close to five million outstation visitors this year as the tourism ministry had its share of glory and missed opportunities.

With a double-digit growth in the foreign tourist arrivals, 2010 was otherwise a good year for the ministry.

Incredible India campaign attracted 4.93 million foreign tourists till November as compared to 4.46 million during the same period last year, registering a growth of 10.4 per cent.

Despite the massive campaign launched by the ministry to promote India for the Commonwealth Games, tourist arrivals did not touch the one lakh mark target during the sporting extravaganza.

The year began on a promising note with visa on arrival (VoA) scheme introduced for tourists from Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Japan.

A total number of 5,644 VoAs were issued under this scheme during January-November. Maximum tourists from Singapore (1623) followed by New Zealand (1604), Japan (1241), Finland (1123) and Luxembourg (53) availed of the scheme.

Encouraged by the response, the VoA scheme is being extended for five more countries — Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Philippines — with effect from 1 January, 2011.

The tourism ministry issued licences to 450 fully trained tourist guides to cater to the growing number of foreign tourists in India.

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism were Rs. 57,850 crore as compared to Rs. 47,918 crore during the same period of 2009, registering a growth rate of 20.7 per cent.

A massive campaign was carried out to promote India as a host country for the Commonwealth Games. While radio spots and road shows were launched in the overseas market, TV commercials, and billboard ads were unleashed in the domestic market for the Games.

Though not many hotels could come up as expected before the Commonwealth Games, there was no shortage of hotel rooms during the event.

The Ministry of Tourism provided central assistance for training of service providers like tourist taxi drivers, auto drivers and immigration personnel in Delhi, NCR region and Agra for making them tourist friendly and hospitable. A total of 2,200 taxi and coach drivers were trained in Haryana Institute of Public Administration.