Did you know that India attracts a major chunk of foreign tourists from neighbouring Bangladesh? While the number of foreign tourist arrivals from that country has been increasing the last three years, the number of arrivals from Pakistan has been declining.

In a written reply to a Lok Sabha question, Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Tourism, gave the country-wise break-up of foreign tourist arrivals for the top 60 countries for 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals increased from 8.8 million in 2016 to 10.04 million in 2017 and 10.56 million in 2018. Foreign exchange earnings have also risen during these three years. Forex earnings through tourism increased from $22.92 billion in 2016 to $27.31 billion in 2017 and $28.58 billion in 2018.

Nearly one in five foreign tourists has been from Bangladesh in the last two years. Nearly 1.38 million foreign tourists arrived from Bangladesh in 2016. These numbers were at 2.15 million and 2.25 million in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The arrival of tourists from the US to India has been gradually increasing over the years. The US accounted for the second highest number of foreign tourists in the last three years. The number of visitors from the US increased from 1.27 million in 2016 to 1.37 million in 2017 and 2.25 million on 2018. The United Kingdom was third on the list.

The number tourist arrivals from Pakistan has declined from 1.04 lakh in 2016 to 44,266 in 2017 and 41,659 in 2018. Argentina’s share was the lowerst among the 60 countries in terms of tourist arrivals.

The following data visualisation is a snapshot of foreign tourist arrivals in the last three years.

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Source: Lok Sabha answer; Data visualisation: A J Vinayak

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