Page 308 - economic review

EXTERNAL SECTOR280

State Profile

6.27 Over the past one and a half decades, the total number of tourists visited the State has increased
sharply. Between 1997 and 2013, it registered more than a hundred percentage growth in total tourist
arrivals to the State from 51 lakhs to 117 lakhs. In the case of Domestic Tourist arrivals (DTA), it has
increased from 49.5 lakhs to 108.57 lakhs and Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA), it has increased from
1.8 lakhs to 8.58 lakhs for the period aforesaid.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA)

6.28 Foreign Tourist Arrivals to the State shows a steady increase over years, except for the year
2009. Global economic crisis had pulled down the growth rate to -4.81 in 2009. But the industry
made a quick revival in the coming year itself. During the year 2010 it recorded a growth rate of 18.31
percent over the previous year. During the year 2013, the FTA to the State was 8.58 lakh, which
shows an increase of 8.12 percentage over the previous year.

6.29 As far as a national level ranking in FTA, the State captures 7th position among the Indian States.
But a significant feature of Kerala Tourism is that FTA to the State shows a better performance than
national average. At National level, the growth rate of FTA was only 5.9 percent in 2013. The State
therefore is able to capture an increasing pie in National FTA. The share of State in National FTA was
only 11.16 percentage in 2008. It has grown to 12.31 percentages in 2013. Appendix 6.7 shows the
National and State FTA from 2008 onwards. Figure shows a comparison of growth trends at National
and State level.

Fig 6.6
Comparison of Growth Trends of FTA at National and State level

Source: Department of Tourism,GoK.

6.30 Majority of FTA to the State is from five countries, viz. the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
USA and Saudi Arabia. These top five countries altogether contributes nearly fifty percentage of
the total FTA (49.72 %) and top ten countries altogether contribute two third of total FTA to the

State. United Kingdom, the single largest source market FTA supplies 17.45 percentage of total

FTA followed by France 11.14 percent, Germany 8.54 percent, USA 7.49 percent and Saudi 5.10

percentage. Appendix 6.8 shows the composition of nationals in FTA to the State during 2013.

Kerala State Planning Board