New Delhi, Dec 9:
India’s outbound travel market has surpassed pre-Covid levels but when it comes to foreign tourists
coming to India, the recovery has been slow.
The country recorded 85.9 lakh foreign tourist visitors (FTVs) in 2022 as compared to 3.14 crore in 2019,
pointed out Union Tourism Minister G Krishna Reddy.
As inbound travel market is yet to reach pre-Covid levels, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO)
has written to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention for revival of inbound tourism in the country. In
the letter, the tourism body has mentioned the reasons for the decline and suggested steps which can be
taken to revive the inbound tourism which has remained much below 2019-20 level.
IATO is a tourism body representing more than 1,700 inbound tour operators of the country.
The letter has listed multiple reasons for decline in numbers which includes withdrawal of incentives to
the inbound tour operators on their foreign exchange earnings which were being used for overseas
marketing and promotions. Another is lack of trained tourism manpower in Indian embassies who are not
able to do regular interaction and follow up with the foreign tour operators. Also, there is lack of marketing
and promotion of tourism in overseas markets as budgetary support for overseas promotion like Fam
Trips to India, overseas road shows were withdrawn.
