The writer George Kangung Maram., is a Former
Director of Tourism for Govt. of Pondicherry.
World Tourism Scenario
The objective of this article is not to stud with
statistics but to highlight contrast in tourists arrivals. The
world tourist arrivals in 2000 were 689.8million.
Europe and Americas
continued to be the most important tourist receiving regions
accounting for 76.2 per cent of the world tourist arrivals in
2000.
India with a share of 0.38 percent in world tourist arrivals
ranks 50.
World tourism receipts excluding fare receipts was
US$ 475.8 billions for the year 2000. India’s share in world
tourism receipts was 0.67 per cent.
India ranks 34 in world tourism receipts. In 2000, India’s foreign exchange receipts
was Rs 14,238 crores.
Foreign and Domestic tourist visits in India
To understand actual trend in tourist traffic, we
shall take pre-September 11/2000 statistics. Domestic tourist
traffic registered an impressive figure of 210113540 . Against
this there were 6068809 foreign tourists visiting India during
2000.
Manipur’s share was 0.1% and 0.0 % respectively. The figure
is abysmally low given the bounteous nature that Manipur is endowed
with. States with lesser endowments receive more tourists both
domestic and foreign. .
For example, Pondicherry with an area
of just 360 sq.kms receive as many as 6 lakh domestic tourists
and over 30,000 foreign tourists. This does not take into account
of foreigners who are based in Auroville almost on a permanent
basis. The corresponding figure for Goa for the same period
are 976804(.5%) and 291709 (4.80%) respectively.
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