For 1st time in 8 years, Indian travellers to the US come down

New Delhi, Sep 14: The number of Indian travellers to the US has seen a huge dip according to the US department of commerce's National Travel and Trade Office.

Around 11.14 lakh Indians went to the US in 2017 which is down 5 per cent when compared to the previous year. In 2016, 11.72 Indians travelled to the US.

On Wednesday, the NTTO released the forecast with figures for 2017, which suggested a decline in the numbers. The NTTO had in April suspended publication of overseas arrival data due to anomalies in the records received from the US Customs and Border Protection.

2009 saw, 5.5 lakh Indian travellers to the US, which was a decline of 8 per cent over the previous year. This was largely owing to the global slowdown. However post this period there was an increase until 2016.

The NTTO however forecasts an increase in the Indian travellers between 2018 and 2022, which suggests that the drop in numbers last year could be a temporary blip.

"US welcomed nearly 7.7 crore international visitors into the country who collectively spent a record-setting $251.4 billion experiencing the US in 2017, a 2% increase when compared to 2016... The number of international travellers to the US rose 0.7 % in 2017 compared to the previous year.

Growing markets were led by South Korea (+17.8%), Brazil (+11%), Argentina (+10%), Ireland (+9%) and Canada (+4.8 %)," the US Department of Commerce said in a statement.