Skift Take
India must work on streamlining visa processes and addressing safety concerns of tourists to unlock the full potential of inbound tourism.
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The number of foreign tourists who arrived in India this year from January to April is 166 percent higher than a year earlier, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said at the inaugural session of the fourth G20 tourism working group meeting in Goa. “India’s inbound travel is expected to reach pre-pandemic level in 2023,” he said. Last year, the country received 6.19 million foreign tourist arrivals. Earnings from tourism more than doubled from $8 billion in 2021 to $16.4 billion in 2022, according to the government’s provisional estimates.
Travel tech firm RateGain Travel Technologies’ India Inbound Travel Trends report noted that families and couples accounted for a majority share of inbound bookings – before the pandemic, solo travelers accounted for roughly a third of hotel bookings by inbound travelers.
Family hotel bookings have increased from 4 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Encouraging inbound travel, the tourism ministry declared its ‘Incredible India! Visit India Year 2023’ initiative earlier this year to highlight unique tourism offerings of every state. Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh had earlier highlighted India’s plans to open up to 50 new tourism destinations, promote green tourism, launch a publicity campaign in overse