India's Biggest Source Markets - India Report

01.10.2024 - 12:51 / skift.com / Virgin Atlantic / Bulbul Dhawan

For all the buzz around India tourism, arrivals from foreigners in the first six months of 2024 were underwhelming: just under 4.78 million. That’s nearly 10% less than arrivals of 5.3 million in the same period in 2019.

Bangladesh emerged as the top source country for India, accounting for nearly 22% of visitors, according to the data released by the tourism ministry. The U.S., the UK, Canada, and Australia rounded out the top 5.

Those rankings could change when we see data for the second half of the year because of political unrest in Bangladesh, which led India to issue fewer visas.  

Among the major source markets, the U.S. has seen the most significant growth. For years before the pandemic, the U.S. held about 13% share among source markets. However, this has now increased to nearly 18%.

Canada and Australia have added about a point in share, while the UK has held steady between 9% and 10%.

A report last week from credit ratings agency Crisil looked at the first seven months and it said foreign arrivals were at 96% of 2019 levels. But it noted an important area of improvement: foreign exchange earnings were up 23%. 

“This suggests tourists are spending more during their visits, which can be linked to several factors, including a 20% rise in five-star hotel rates between 2019 and 2024, increasing tourist preference for luxury experiences and higher disposable incomes,” it said.

More Aviation Development: Amid this, the government has unveiled plans to build 29 new airports over the next 20 years to improve global connectivity, boost economic growth, and cater to the growing demand for air travel in Tier-2 and 3 cities.

Among these, Gujarat will get 9 new airports – the highest of any other states. According to data by the Airports Authority of India, between April and August 2024, nearly 7 million tourists visited Gujarat, of which, 923,000 were international visitors. The state saw nearly 60,000 flights during this period. 

Meanwhile, 13 other states will get one new airport each. The government is focusing on either developing or upgrading existing airports in small cities, and expanding capacity in metropolitan regions. As part of its plans, the new airports will have the capability to handle Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 planes to allow them to connect with international destinations directly. 

The Indian government has decided to offer visa-fee waivers for the first 100,000 tourists entering the country under the “Chalo India” initiative. The tourism ministry is now working on finalizing the operational guidelines for this initiative. Earlier also, India had used visa fee waiver to boost tourism to the country after the pandemic. 

The Chalo India program was launched to allow Indian diaspora