The Indian Tourism Statistics 2022 report was released by the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar on the occasion of World Tourism Day (September 27, 2022).
Key facts
- The union tourism ministry’s report revealed that Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu witnessed the highest number of visits by foreign tourists in 2021.
- Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in India in 2021 has fallen to 1.52 million. This is a 44.5 per cent decline when compared with the 2.74 million in 2020.
- India witnessed 677.63 million domestic tourist visits in 2021. This is a 11.05 per cent increase from 2020’s figures.
- Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Qutub Minar are the top 3 most visited sites in India in 2021-22.
- Taj Mahal reported a 3.29 million visits or 12.65 per cent of total footfall in 2021-22 from domestic visitors.
- Group of Monuments at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu was the most visited centrally-protected monument by foreigners in 2021-22.
- In 2021-22, the total number of domestic visitors recorded a 98 per cent year-on-year growth.
- The total number of foreign visitors to the country during the same period declined by 23.4 per cent on year.
- While the foreign tourist arrivals recorded negative growth rate in 2021, non-resident Indians and international tourist arrivals witnessed positive growth. The arrivals of NRIs increased 52.6 per cent from 2020 to 2021.
- The top 15 countries that sourced foreign tourist arrivals to India were the US, Bangladesh, the UK, Canada, Nepal, Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, Portugal, France, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Russia, Iraq and the Netherlands.
- These countries accounted for around 80.9 per cent of the total foreign tourist arrivals in India.
- Foreign exchange earnings from tourism sector in India in 2021 were USD 8.797 billion, which is a 26.4 per cent increase from 2020.