INDIA. Tourist arrivals to India increased by +14% year-on-year in November. The total was 281,500, against 245,700 visitors in the same month last year.
Thanks to the improvement in arrivals since August this year, 2003 should end with the highest visitor numbers ever recorded in a year. For the 11-month period to November, the total of 2.39 million visitors has already exceeded the tourist inflow of 2.38 million for the whole of 2002.
December has historically been India’s best month for tourism; during December 2002 the country welcomed 296,500 visitors. With the season doing well, analysts expect the inflow to exceed 300,000 this December, surpassing the tourist arrivals of previous years and making certain of a record, beating the previous high of 2.53 million.
According to tour operators and industry analysts, the growth in tourist arrivals for 2003 is sustainable and growth should accelerate in coming years.
Government initiatives – to set up international convention centres in Mumbai and Delhi, to upgrade airports in these two cities and to build additional airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore – will aid in promoting India as a business and tourist destination. The “˜Incredible India’ tourism initiative has also had a significant impact this year.
