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Foreign tourist arrivals in India rose 10.6 per cent in August, marking the strongest monthly growth in more than two years, with a sharp increase in visitors from Bangladesh contributing significantly to the rise.
Preliminary data from India’s Ministry of Tourism showed that 691,000 foreign tourists visited the country in August, up from 625,000 a year earlier, The Hindu’s BusinessLine reported on Sunday.
The increase marked the first double-digit growth in monthly foreign tourist arrivals since February 2024.
Despite ongoing political tensions and restrictions on Indian visas for Bangladeshis, the number of Bangladeshi visitors to India jumped by nearly 80 per cent year-on-year to more than 74,000 in August, according to the preliminary figures.
Bangladesh was one of India’s major source markets for foreign tourists until 2023.
Visitor numbers from China also more than doubled from a year earlier, exceeding 9,000 in August. Chinese tourists were among the largest groups of foreign visitors to India during the month.
Arrivals from the United States and the United Kingdom increased by around 3 per cent, while visitors from Canada, Germany, Malaysia and Sri Lanka rose by between 10 and 15 per cent.
The figures suggest that despite travel and visa-related constraints affecting some markets, India continued to see a broad-based recovery in international tourist arrivals during August.
