The country from which tourists most often visited India in 2023 has been named

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism in India are approaching pre-pandemic levels, although the country has not yet recorded similar highs in terms of the number of tourists arriving.

According to data released by the Ministry of Tourism for October 2023, Bangladesh was the largest source of foreign tourists, accounting for 21.4 percent of all arrivals, followed by the United States (15.7 percent), the United Kingdom (11.3 percent), Australia (4.4 percent) and Canada (3.8 percent), Rediff.com reports.

Two-fifths of Indians who traveled abroad went to two countries in the Persian Gulf region. The most popular destinations for outbound Indians were the United Arab Emirates (27.6 percent) and Saudi Arabia (11.4 percent).

Other top destinations include Thailand (5.6%), the US (4.9%) and Singapore (4.8%).

In a bid to boost tourism, the ministry has upgraded initiatives such as the Swadesh Darshan scheme to Swadesh Darshan 2.0, and launched initiatives such as Dekho Apna Desh and providing e-visa facilities for categories such as tourist, business, medical and conference visas.

In October 2023, foreign tourist arrivals were mainly motivated by rest, leisure and recreation, with a share of 47.6% coming for this stated purpose.

Medical tourism accounted for 7 percent of arrivals, followed by business and professional travel (11.8 percent). In addition, 24.25 percent of visitors belonged to the Indian diaspora.

For every foreign arrival, there were three departures from India, according to the data.

Indians are increasingly traveling. In October, 2.21 million Indians traveled abroad, which is 3% more than in 2019.