Foreign tourist tap a trickle but sector hopeful

India's tourism took a devastating hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, with tourist inflows dwindling to record lows last year.

But amid the bad news, tourist operators are keenly tracking the current situation and would be hoping to see the trickle of tourists turn into a steady flow, even as they remain on tenterhooks over the new virus variants.

Just over two lakh international visitors visited India during the pandemic between April and December last year as against over 77 lakhs during the same period in 2019.

According to data compiled by the tourism ministry, arrival of foreigners was the lowest in April last year at 470, when the country was under lockdown to fight the pandemic that wreaked havoc across the world. In April 2019, India had reported arrival of 7.74 lakh foreigners.

India had suspended international flights from March 22 as first cases of Covid-19 reported in the country were traced to arrivals of visitors from abroad, particularly from China and Europe.

Between April and December 2019, India had recorded 77,50,563 arrivals of foreigners, while during the pandemic the numbers dwindled to 2,13,853 for the period under review.

Tourism and hospitality sector was the worst affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown had a cascading effect on livelihood of people dependent on tourism.

“Since the situation is still evolving, the final impact can only be ascertained in due course,” Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel told Parliament recently.

According to the tourism ministry data, arrival of foreigners in May last year was 1,329 as against 6,15,136 in May 2019, 4,480 in June last year (7,26,446 in 2019), 6,503 in July last year (8,18,125), 11,619 in August last year (8,00,837), 18,469 in September last year (7,51,513), 30,917 in October last year (9,45,017), 60,156 in November last year (10,92,440) and 79,910 in December last year (12,26,398).

Though tour operators were reluctant to speak on the resumption of international tourism, they are keenly watching the evolving situation, particularly in the wake of new strains of the coronavirus in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

Earlier, a task force from the hospitality industry had urged the government to resume issuing tourist visas.