Out of 5.1 million foreign tourists to enter India in 2009, about 800,000 were from the United States. The USA was also at the top of the list in 2008.
The next highest countries were the UK, BanglaDesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, France, followed by China with 97,000 arrivals.
In late 2010, India may get a spike from the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, so it is possible that the UK may “topple” the United States as the top sender of tourists to India.
Note: In the past many American business people have traveled to India on tourist visas. The Indian government is now enforcing rules that have always been on the books insisting that visitors procure the right kind of visa for their travels. India expert recommends that you don’t travel for business on a tourist visa.
Posted on July 12th, 2010 by Gunjan
With the Commonwealth Games not very far away, US interest in India will hopefully go beyond the nuclear deal. US have realized how important India and China are for the world economy today. So it’s not really surprising that US are sending the highest number of tourists to India. This has indeed been confirmed by the tourism ministry recently. However, as indicated in this post many among these tourists could actually be business travelers. Implementing visa rules more efficiently will make the picture accurate.