IT was for the first time that the number of foreign tourists visiting India crossed the 10 million mark in 2017, even as various government departments (both the central and state bodies) continue to pour in money to beef up the infrastructure for the visitors.

While tourism minister K.J. Alphons says the sector is doing well in the country, he wants the numbers to rise dramatically over the coming months.

Of course, India still ranks quite low in the number of tourists visiting it, especially when compared to many other countries. France, with more than 82m foreign visitors, tops the list, followed by the United States and Spain (more than 75m each), China (60m), Italy (53m), and Britain, Germany and Mexico (35m each).

Even Thailand (33m) and Malaysia (27m) attract far more foreign tourists than India.

International tourism contributes significantly to economic growth the world over. In India, it accounted for almost seven per cent of the GDP and 12pc share of jobs in total employment, according to the minister.

Foreign tourists also accounted for $27 billion in spending last year. The surge in international tourists (from 2.65m in 2000 and 5.78m in 2010) has also seen India jump in the tourism competitiveness index. Its ranking went up to 40 in 2017 from 65 in 2013.

Adding to the woes of foreign tourists is the acute shortfall in hotel rooms in the country. According to the tourism department, India has a shortage of nearly 200,000 hotel rooms to cater to the needs of international visitors.

The hotel industry expects finance minister Arun Jaitley to extend a lot of concessions to the sector in a bid to attract funds into the segment. The budget, to be presented in a few days, is expected to cut taxes on tourism-related services and provide additional incentives to operators.

While the inflow of foreign tourists into the country is still low as compared to figures for other countries, there has been a surge in the outflow of visitors from India to other countries.

About 25m Indians travel abroad every year and the figure is likely to double in just two to three years. The UN World Tourism Organisation has projected that India will have 50m outbound tourists by 2020. About 10 years ago, fewer than 8m Indians were travelling abroad annually.

Interestingly, the profile of Indians travelling abroad is also changing rapidly. In the past, only the rich could afford to go to other countries, but today, middle-class Indians and even the rural folk are taking foreign trips.

Even the Philippines, not such a sought-after market for Indian travellers in the past, has emerged as extremely popular. The country saw a hefty 20pc rise in Indian tourist arrivals in 2017, crossing the 100,000 mark for the first time.

According to a spokesperson for the Philippines Tourism Marketing Office India, disposable income for leisure and travel-related pursuits amongst middle-class and affluent travellers are the major reasons behind the remarkable growth in tourist inflow from India

And airlines are capitalising on this surge in foreign travel, connecting smaller cities, including many state capitals, to not just Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok, but even to European destinations.

Some busy international routes, such as India to the United Arab Emirates, have more flights operating between the two countries than between most Indian states. There are more than a thousand flights operating every week between India and the UAE.

And a trip from Mumbai to Dubai is cheaper than a domestic flight between Delhi and Chennai or Kochi to Kolkata.

THERE was a time in the not-too-distant past when very few Indians — mainly the rich, celebrities and business executives, besides of course government officials — had passports.

Today, about 60m to 65m Indians have passports and the number is keep growing. Most passport offices have a large number of applicants waiting to get the document that would enable them to travel abroad either on work or for a holiday.

Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs came out with major changes in policies for issuing new passports. Based on the recommendations of a three-member committee, the ministry decided not to print information — such as the name of the passport holder’s father, mother or spouse, their address, and the Emigration Check Required (ECR) condition — on the last page of passports.

The ministry also decided to print passports in orange to reflect the ECR status (generally labourers heading to the Gulf) of the person, a move that was criticised by many for being discriminatory.

After a long time, a new colour is being added to Indian passports. At present, passports come in three colours — navy blue for the general public, maroon for diplomats and top officials, and white for government officials.

The orange passport will indicate that the citizen is a worker (and having only done schooling) heading to the Gulf. The objective is to ensure that the person is not exploited by employers abroad, but many fear that this would slot them as labourers who could be ordered around.

Most Indian labourers head to the Gulf where they work at factories, construction sites and on infrastructure projects. Their numbers though have declined in recent years, as there are an increasing number of white-collar Indian workers in the Gulf.

The 2017 International Migration Report, released last month by the UN, revealed that India topped the list of countries with its nationals living abroad. There were 17m Indians living abroad — including more than 8m in the Gulf — according to the report.

“A number of migrants from India now reside in multiple destination countries, including the UAE at 3m, and the US and Saudi Arabia at 2m each,” said the report.

About 1.3m Indians live in Europe (double as compared to the figure in 2000), including 800,000-plus in the UK. About 600,000 Indians live in Canada and 400,000 in Australia.

Mexico, with 13m citizens living abroad, came second, followed by Russia (11m), China (10m), Bangladesh and Syria (7m each), and Pakistan and Ukraine (6m each).

Worldwide, nearly 260m people live outside their country of birth, a nearly 50pc jump since 2000.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 22nd, 2018