Foreign tourist arrival up 14.5% in Jan-Sept

Foreign tourist arrivals to India clocked a 16.5 per cent increase in September to 189,999, with the industry rebounding after a thaw in ties with Pakistan as well as a total recovery from the SARS effect.

The number of foreign tourists in the January-September period was up 14.5 per cent to 18.64 lakh (1.86 million), while foreign exchange earnings from tourism jumped by 19.9 per cent to $2.498 billion.

"Visitors kept away from India last year, when nuclear-armed India and Pakistan stood on the brink of a war," a government official said.

Interestingly, in spite of the SARS scare earlier this year tourist inflow witnessed an increase. An American Express study said most of the economies had recovered from the SARS effect.

The study said corporate travel, which was hit to the extent of 90 per cent in SARS-hit markets in Asia Pacific including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan and by 50 per cent in non-SARS impacted markets Australia, India and New Zealand, had almost completely bounced back to the previous year's levels.

"Corporate travel in SARS-hit markets took only three weeks to hit rock bottom -- trading was down 90 per cent by the end of May -- but nine weeks later, corporate travel trade had almost fully recovered to the previous year's levels," it said.

The analysis also disclosed that corporate travel in non-SARS-hit markets dropped by about 50 per cent over a three-week period in 2002, but had almost recovered within five weeks, much faster than the SARS-hit markets.

"The negative impact of SARS was quick and deep, beginning in early April and peaking in late April. Recovery was slower with SARS-impacted markets recovering by mid-July and non-SARS-impacted markets recovering through late June. Both markets, however, had stabilised by late August at levels somewhat below those of 2002," Kyle Davis, American Express vice president and general manager, corporate travel (Asia Pacific and Australia), said.

He added that while corporate travel from SARS-hit markets to non-SARS-hit markets dipped by 52 per cent in late April, corporate travel from SARS-hit markets to SARS-hit markets was at its worst in late May when it was down by 90 per cent.

Davis said corporate travel from non-SARS-hit markets to SARS-hit markets began recovering in late May, when it was down by 82 per cent compared with the previous year, but was down by 13.5 per cent by the end of August.

"Even corporate travel from non-SARS-hit countries to non-SARS-hit countries didn't escape the SARS scare with the sector taking a 26 per cent fall in late April," he added. He, however, added that the rebound was expected to continue, based on the indications of future travel.

The analysis was released by American Express at its corporate travel global media forum in France.

While all markets globally were selected as destinations, all of China (including mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Singapore and Toronto were defined as SARS-hit destinations.