What is the Impact of COVID-19 on Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAS) in India from Top Fifteen Source Countries during 2019 & 2020- A Cross Sectional Study?

Abstract

Due to novel disease, poor management and stringent steps taken by the government as well as sudden increase in admissions at emergency department of hospitals the mortality rate had increased significantly due to COVID-19. Such a catastrophic situation might have reduced the foreign tourist arrivals in India due to several factors like fear, lack of transportation etc. In this modern era geographical knowledge of pattern of distribution of disease is essential while detecting, surveillance, monitoring and responding to any communicable infectious disease outbreak or NCD (non-communicable diseases) or any pandemic situations. Geospatial data of COVID-19 infections per million population reported by countries, territories and areas are under surveillance by national and international agencies such as World Health Organization in various countries. This paper is to find out the impact of COVID-19 on Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India from top 15 Source Countries during 2019 &2020 with aim to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic era (2020 as discussed above) by comparing it with pre-pandemic era of 2019. To assess the impact of COVID-19 on Foreign Tourist Arrivals number and percentage share of tourists coming to India during pandemic era-2020 and pre-pandemic era 2019 were compared. The total numbers of FTAs in India during 2019 from all source countries were 10930355 which reduced to 2744766 during COVID-19 PANDEMIC ERA in 2020; a massive decline by 8185589 numbers of tourists and 25.11percent compared to pre-pandemic era of 2019. On the other hand the total numbers of FTAs in India during 2019 from Total Top 15 Countries were 8340551 which decreased to 2061161 during COVID-19 PANDEMIC ERA in 2020; a huge decline by 6279390 numbers of tourists and 24.71percent compared to pre-pandemic era of 2019 while FTAs in India during 2019 from Other Countries were 2589804 reduced to 683605 during Covid-era 2020 (26.40% decrease). Tourism is one of the significant resources to generate foreign revenue for India. COVID-19 pandemic era, have affected the tourism sector negatively and this novel research study revealed that the national and international FTAs and revenue income are adversely affected detrimental for Tourism industry. The COVID-19 induced lockdown had resulted in closure of hotels; resorts etc., as well as ships, cruises, flights had been halted to check the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in revenue loss of 1.25 trillion rupees for the Indian tourism industry by 2020.