India pitching G20 for tourism push

Foreign Tourist Arrivals

- FTAs have not reached the pre-Covid level

- Combined FTAs rose 292% in Jan-Feb to 1,733,939

- It’s lower by 21.2% against 2,201,556 in Jan-Feb 2019

- Govt lowers GST on hotel rooms

New Delhi: The Ministry of Tourism hopes to augment foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) by capitalizing on the G20 meetings taking place across the country. The G20 Working Group on Tourism will meet in Srinagar next month. The Ministry is making an elaborate plan to showcase the tourism destinations of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to promote snow tourism at the meeting, official sources told Bizz Buzz.

G20 meetings of various subgroups have been held in some of the top-55 tourism destinations such as Udaipur in Rajasthan, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, and Assam. FTAs in February were 865,779 as compared to 240,896 in February 2022, registering a growth of 259.4 per cent. FTAs in January were 868,160 with a growth rate of 330.8 per cent as compared to 201,546 in January 2022.

The combined FTAs during the period January-February were 1,733,939 as compared to 442,442 in January-February 2022, registering a growth of 291.9 per cent over the FTAs in the same period last calendar year.

Yet, FTAs have not reached the pre-Covid level. FTAs in January-February 2019 were 2,201,556; this means that in the first two months of this calendar year, FTAs were 21.2 per cent lower than those in 2019.

The Ministry of Tourism has taken several initiatives to boost tourism. The infrastructure of the 55 destinations where G20 meetings are being held has been augmented and upgraded, the sources said.

Tourism offerings are being highlighted in the run-up to these meetings. Excursions of delegates are also organized to nearby tourist attractions. Effort is being made to make the G20 delegates as tourism ambassadors for India. Important tourism sites and facilities are being upgraded to international standards.

Other measures include the lowering of GST on hotel rooms with tariffs of Rs1,001 to Rs7,500 per night to 12 per cent and those above Rs7,501 to 18 per cent to increase India’s competitiveness as a tourism destination.