Foreign tourists make India richer by $1.03 billion in October

India's foreign exchange earnings from overseas tourists during October 2009 rose to Rs4,806 crore ($1.03 billion) from Rs4,248 crore ($873 million) in October 2008, despite a fall in the number of tourist inflows.  

Foreign exchange earnings during January-October 2009 were, however, lower at Rs42,395 crore ($8.70 billion) compared with Rs40,712 crore ($9.70 billion) in January-October 2008.
 
The growth rate in foreign exchange earnings from tourists during January-October 2009 was down 10.3 per cent compared with the negative growth rate (-13.1 per cent) during January-September 2009.

Foreign exchange earnings from tourists, recorded an increase of 4.1 per cent during January-October 2009 compared with the 3.1 per cent growth recorded in January-September of the current year.
 
The number of foreign tourist arrived in India fell by a marginal 0.9 per cent during October 2009 and stood at 4.48 lakh compared with 4.53 lakh during October 2008. Foreign tourist arrivals in the country stood at 4.45 lakh in October 2007.
 
However, there has been an improvement compared to a negative (-) 4.1 per cent growth observed in September 2009.
 
For the January-October 2009 period also foreign tourist arrivals were down 7.0 per cent at 40.23 lakh against 43.24 lakh in January-October 2008. The growth rate of foreign tourist arrivals, however, improved from the 7.7 per cent fall registers in January-September 2009 period. 

The tourism ministry compiles monthly estimates of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) and foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism on the basis of data received from major airports.