UPSC Current Affairs – June 4, 2020

The Ministry of Tourism has released the Indian Tourist Statistics.� As per the report, Uttar Pradesh attracted the highest number of domestic tourists in year 2019.

Highlights

• As per the report,� foreign tourist arrival in India increased by 2.2 % in 2019.
• Total number of foreign visitors to India counts to 28.9 million alone in 2019.
• Top five source countries include Bangladesh,� Sri Lanka, United States, United Kingdom,� and Canada.
• Total foreign exchange figure touched 29 billion USD in 2019 in tourism alone.
• The report mention that the peak tourism season are the first and fourth quarters of the calendar.
• Of the total foreign tourists,� 58.6% were males and 41.4% were females.
• As per the report, top destinations of Indian tourists in 2019 were- Thailand Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, United States, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, Bhutan, Maldives.

Domestic Tourism

Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh and Gateway of India in Mumbai were the top spots of domestic tourism. Uttar Pradesh attracted the maximum number of tourists in 2019. 53.6 crore domestic tourists ( 23.1% )� visited Uttar Pradesh. The state has also stands at third position in attracting foreign tourists.� The other states that fetch the higher number of tourists include Kerala, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. Around 5 million tourist visa were applied, in 2019 alone. The highest e-tourist visa were applied from UK, US and China.

Why tourism grew in 2019?

Several visa norms were eased. Schemes like UDAN Scheme and other developmental projects such as development of hotels, roads, highways, a number of circuits including the Ramayana circuit, Mahabharat circuit, Braj circuit, Shaktipeeth circuit, Jain Circuit, Adhyatmik circuit, and Buddhist circuit etc attracted more tourism by making the�travelling easier and accessible. Further, Tourist e visa fee were reduced from 80 USD to 40 USD. The government also reduced the GST on hotel to 18%.