Twilight time? Kerala tourism falls behind neighbors in numbers: File photoThiruvananthapuram: God's own country's mystic mountains, scenic beaches and breath-taking backwaters are slowly losing its charm among tourists. If the number of foreign tourists visiting Kerala is any indication, the state is not even among the top five tourist destinations.
Kerala accounted for only 4.2 per cent of the total foreign tourist visits (10.38 lakh) and occupied the seventh slot in a list topped by Tamil Nadu (47.21 lakh, 19.1%), Maharashtra (46.70 lakh, 18.9%) and Uttar Pradesh (31.56 lakh, 12.8%) for 2016.
Kochi was at number 7 for foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) with 3.15 lakh tourists landing there, but it notched an impressive 3.59 per cent share in a list which has Delhi at the top with 26.17 lakh FTAs. But interestingly, Kochi beat Goa's Dabolim, which was at number 9 slot.
Thiruvananthapuram (No 9) also got a space in the top 10 airports where tourists arrived with e-visas along with Kochi (No 6) in January-June 2017.
The maximum number of tourists who landed availing e-visas was in Delhi followed by Mumbai and Goa in January-June this year.
Kochi (No 3) and Thiruvananathapuram (No 8) airports were among the top 10 in international departures in 2016. There were 21.90 lakh international departures from Kochi, which was below Mumbai (46.92 lakh) and Delhi (44.75 lakh). Number of international departures from Thiruvananthapuram, which was ahead of Kolkata and Ahmedabad airports in top 10 list, was at 10.37 lakh.
Kerala did not figure in the top 10 states in number of domestic tourists. The maximum number of domestic tourists visited Tamil Nadu, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Figures speak
Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in the country stood at 8.80 million in 2016, a 9.7 per cent jump from the previous year, according to India Tourism Statistics 2017. FTAs, including NRIs, stood at 14.57 million. NRI arrivals have been included in the tourism arrivals data since 2014.
But the FTAs in January-June period alone was more than half of this at 4.89 million according to provisional figures, a 17.2 per cent growth from the corresponding period the previous year.
Foreign exchange earnings from tourists in 2016 was a whopping $22.92 billion (Rs 1.54 lakh crore), which is an annual growth rate of 8.8 percent in dollar terms and 14 per cent in rupee terms.
Provisional foreign exchange earnings in January-June period of 2017 alone was $13.23 billion, a 22 per cent jump over the corresponding period the previous year. This would mean in the January-June period alone, the country earned Rs 87,096 crore from tourism.
The number of Indian national departures from the country in 2016 was at 21.87 million, up 7.3 per cent from the previous year and a nearly five-fold jump from 2000 (4.42 million).
The number of domestic tourists who visited all states and Union Territories in 2016 was at 1.6 billion, which is an impressive 12.7 per cent rise over the previous year.
In FTAs, the country improved its global ranking to 25 in 2016 from 50 in 2000. India's share in international tourist arrivals was just 1.18 percent and international tourism receipts was 1.88 per cent in dollar terms.
The maximum number of foreign tourists who arrived in India in 2016 was from Bangladesh (13.80 lakh), followed by the United States (12.96 lakh) and the United Kingdom (9.41 lakh).
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