TBM Staff - Mumbai Foreign tourist arrivals in 2022 till August have reached close to 50% of the numbers during the corresponding period in the pre-pandemic year 2019, according to the government data, with officials pointing out that the recovery so far has been on the expected lines, reports Neha Tripathi for Mint.
According to data from the Ministry of Tourism, a total of 3,263,219 foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) have been recorded this year till August, which is 47.2% of the 6,914,987 foreign travellers who visited the country in the corresponding period in 2019.
In terms of month-wise recovery, the data suggests that while the FTAs in January this year were 18.1% of the corresponding figures in 2019, it increased up to 78.3% of the pre-pandemic year numbers in July. The figure stood at 62.2% in August with 498,243 arrivals as compared to 800,837 in the corresponding month in 2019.
“There is an ongoing war in Europe and international air fares are high. Under these circumstances, the recovery numbers are as expected,” said Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh. “Based on current booking trends, India should reach pre-Covid levels of international arrivals by early 2023.”
In January this year, 201,546 FTAs were recorded in the country and the figure was 18.1% of the 1,111,040 foreign travelers during the first month of 2019. Similarly, February saw 240,896 FTAs (22.1% of the 2019 figures), March 342,308 (35%), April 392,930 (50.7%), May 423,701 (68.9%), June 522,737 (72%), and July recorded 640,858 FTAs, which stood at 78.3% of the 818,125 foreign travelers visiting the country in the corresponding month in 2019, as per the data. (Source: Mint)
