The Ministry of Tourism submitted its report on foreign tourist visits to India in 2018 to the parliament. As per the report, Bangladesh topped the list for having maximum no. of the country’s visitors to India. Bangladesh was followed by United States(US) and United Kingdom(UK) in the second and third place respectively.
TN topped maximum visit by foreign tourists:
i.Among individual state visits, TamilNadu(TN) topped the list with for having the maximum number of tourist arrivals. In 2018, TN had 60 lakh foreign visitors.
ii.TN was followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh(UP) with 50lakh and 37 lakh foreign visitors respectively.
Key Points:
i.The report showed a consistent increase in the overall foreign tourist arrivals to India as well as foreign Exchange Earnings(FEE) over the years from 2016- 18.
ii.Pakistan was the country which had a sharp decline in visit to India. The number had fallen from 1,04,720 in 2016 to 44,266 in 2017, and further dropping to 41,659 in 2018.
iii.Bangladesh arrival: In 2017 Arrival from Bangladesh increased to 21,56,557 from 12,80,409 in the previous year.
Ranking:
| Rank | Foreign Tourist Arrivals(FTAs) | States with highest foreign tourist visit |
| 1 | Bangladesh | Tamil Nadu. |
| 2 | United States(US). | Maharashtra. |
| 3 | United Kingdom(UK). | Uttar Pradesh. |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | Delhi. |
| 5 | Canada | Rajasthan. |
About Ministry of Tourism:
Founded- 1967.
Headquarters- New Delhi.
Minister of State (MoS- independent charge)- Prahalad Singh Patel (constituency- Damoh,Madhya Pradesh).
