Foreign tourist inflow to India up by 4 times after pandemic: Govt

February 08, 2023 12:32

Union Culture and Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday said nearly 69 lakh foreign tourists visited India in 2022, indicating a four-fold increase in the number of arrivals after two years of negative growth during COVID-19 pandemic.

Reddy was addressing the Tourism Working Group (TWG) meeting organised at the Tent City in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch as part of India's G20 presidency. He said a 'National Tourism Mission' is also being formulated to ensure the digitalisation of the tourism sector in mission mode.

"The world faced difficult times during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism sector in particular has been severely affected because of COVID-19. But, after two years of negative growth, India received approximately 6.9 million tourists from abroad in 2022. This is a four-fold increase in the number of arrivals to India," the minister said. The increase in tourist inflow indicates that "our efforts for achieving resilient growth in tourism are progressing in the right direction," he said.

This is the second G20 event in the state after the 'Business 20 Inception' programme held in Gandhinagar last month. More than 100 delegates from India and other participating countries are attending the first TWG meeting. Reddy said the Ministry of Tourism, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is celebrating this year as 'Visit India 2023', focussing on inbound travel to India.

"We have 40 UNESCO heritage sites, and we observe more than 1,000 festivals every year," he said. During the last eight years, the country has built extensive tourism infrastructure to improve the tourism experience, he said. -- PTI

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