BY DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
KOLKATA, 12 MARCH 2025:
Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal have registered as the top three destinations for Foreign Tourist Visits (FTV) in the entire country. Recently, the Union Minister of Tourism and culture, Gajendra Singh Shekawat has released the latest statistics of the Foreign Tourist Visits
(VTVs) in India for each state for the calendar years 2022 and 2023.
Though a total of 85 lakhs 87 thousand and 562 foreign tourists had visited India in 2022, in the year 2023 about 1 crores 92 lakhs 45 thousand ,817 foreign tourists arrived in the country.
Foreign Tourist Visits had suffered a huge blow between 2020 to 2022 due to outbreak of the Covid -19 global pandemic , when the international skies were also closed.
“The main reason for this huge surge of arrivals within a year is attributed to the fact that since 2020 the international commercial flight operations were shut down due to the outbreak of the global Covid -19 pandemic and the borders were closed,: said Mr. Sanjeev Mehra, President , SKAL International, India.
The data released by union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat have showed that in 2022 and in 2023, the top three states in terms of foreign tourist arrivals have been Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal. In the year 2022 about 10 lakhs 37 thousand 17 foreigners visited West Bengal, whereas in 2023, about 27 lakhs 6 thousand 942 foreigners visited the state.
In 2022, about 15,11,623 numbers of foreigners had visited the state of Maharashtra, while in 2023 about 33 lakhs 87 thousand , 739 foreigners had visited the state. In the state of Gujarat in 2022 about 17 lakhs 77 thousand 215 foreigners visited , while in the year 2023 about 28 lakhs 6 thousand 871 foreigners had visited.
The states which have popular tourism destinations like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh etc have registered much lesser numbers of foreign tourists arrivals in those two years.
In Kerala 3,45,549 foreigners arrived in 2022 while in 2023 the figure was 6,49,057, In Goa in 2022 about 1,74,799 foreigners had arrived but in 2023 the figure had increased to 4,52,692. In 2022 about 8,15,713 foreigners had visited Delhi, while in 2023 about 18,28,116 foreigners had arrived. Rajasthan had recorded 3,96,684 foreign tourists arrivals in 2022 and in 2023 it was 16,99,869.
The Union Ministry of Tourism has taken several steps and initiatives over the years to encourage more foreign tourists to visit India in the past five years. The Ministry of Tourism under the popular schemes of ‘Swadesh Darshan’, ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD)’ and ‘Assistance to
Central Agencies for Tourism Infrastructure Development’ provides financial assistance to State Governments and Union Territory Administrations/ Central Agencies for the development of tourism related infrastructure and facilities at various tourism destinations in the country.
The Ministry of Tourism of India through its various campaigns and events promotes various tourism destinations and products of India in domestic and international markets. Some of the major such initiatives are Dekho Apna Desh campaign, Chalo India campaign, International Tourism Mart, Bharat Parv etc .
The Incredible India Content Hub was launched which is a comprehensive digital repository, featuring a rich collection of high-quality images, films, brochures, and newsletters related to tourism in India. Promotions are also carried out through the web-site and social media handles.
Thematic tourism like wellness tourism, culinary tourism, rural, eco-tourism, etc. amongst other niche subjects are promoted so as to expand the scope of tourism into other sectors as well.
Enhance the overall quality and visitor experience through initiatives focused on capacity building, skill development such as ‘Capacity Building for Service Providers’, ‘Incredible India Tourist Facilitator’ (IITF), ‘Paryatan Mitra’ and ‘Paryatan Didi’.
For improving air connectivity to important tourist destinations, the Ministry of Tourism has collaborated with the Ministry of Civil Aviation under their RCS-UDAN Scheme. As on date, 53 tourism routes have been operationalized.
e-Visa scheme is now available to 167 countries and it is available for 9 sub-categories- e-Tourist Visa, e-Business Visa,e-Medical Visa, e-Conference Visa, e-Medical Attendant Visa, e-Ayush Visa, e-Ayush Attendant Visa, e- Student Visa, e-Student X Visa.
Talking to The Travel and Tourism Times, Mr. Anjani Kumar Dhanuka, Chairman ( East) of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said that yes, it is true that West Bengal registering 3rd highest numbers of foreign tourist arrivals in 2022 and 2023 because West Bengal is having so many to see and all kind of tourist places like mountains, sea, forest, religious places etc.
“And also West Bengal is having full of infrastructure like airports, good connectivity of trains and surface transports. Our chief minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee always promotes tourism and with her efforts we are having good number of foreign travelers in West Bengal,”added Mr. Anjani Kumar Dhanuka.
The Durga Puja was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2021. The inscription took place during the 16th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Durga Puja Carnival and the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage tag had also played a key role in increasing the foreign tourist arrivals in Kolkata and in West Bengal.
Again Shantiniketan, the Tagore’s abode of Peace, in West Bengal, was also inscribed on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List in 2023. It is India’s 41st World Heritage Site. Huge numbers of foreign tourists arrive in Shantiniketan for the Poush Mela and Basanta Utsav.
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