No major impact of terror acts on tourism: Govt

New Delhi, Aug 1: Conceding that terrorist activities had partially affected tourism locally, the government today said these had not created an impact on overall tourism in the country.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said tourist arrivals in the first six months of this year had registered an upward trend as compared to the same period last year.

In June this year, a total of 286257 tourists visted India as compared to 258822 during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 10.6 per cent.

Even during July 1-20, the tourist arrivals at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai had gone up by 10.4 per cent.

Pointing out that safety and security was a State subject, the minister said her ministry had advised state governments and Union Territories to take adequate measures for the safety of tourists at important tourists destinations.

Replying to another query, Ms Soni said France sent maximum number of tourists to India in 2005 with a figure of 169485. It was followed by England (120169), the US (105074), Germany (94056), Italy (84780), Australia (61921) Canada (52873), Switzerland (45662) and Japan (29979).

Out of the total tourist arrivals (1131164) in 2005, only 311 Sri Lankan nationals visited India.

The minister said India earned 5731 million US dollars as foreign exchange from from tourism last year while it was 4769 million dollars in 2004.

''India's share in foreign tourist arrivals during 2005 was 0.49 per cent of the total world arrivals,'' she pointed out.

To a questioner, she said two phases of 'Atithi Devo Bhavah' awareness campaign were undertaken in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

In both the phases, seven cities, Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Goa and Mumbai, were targeted. The campaign involved training and sensitisation of stakeholders of the tourism industry and mass media campaign to create awareness of benefits of tourism, she said.

UNI

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