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India
among top travel destinations in the world
According to the latest list of the Top Travel Destinations by iExplore,
an online seller of adventure and experiential travel, India ranks
amongst the fifth choicest place to visit in the world in 2004 and
2005. India figures among the top ten world travel destinations and
is the fifth choicest place to visit. Egypt, Peru, Galapagos and China
are the first four top travel destinations. Other destinations preferred
after India are South Africa, France, Italy, New Zealand and Alaska.
Destinations that showed strong growth in 2005 included Morocco (12th),
Argentina (14th) and Jordan (16th). Bumped from last year's top ten
were Chile (20th) and Costa Rica (40th). The list is compiled and
determined on the basis of the vacation purchases of its adventure
and experiential travelers.
Tourist Arrivals Up
Foreign tourist arrivals recorded a steady jump with over 33 lakhs
till November this year, registering an increase of 3.5 per cent.
This was against a total of 29,59,850 foreign tourists visiting the
country during the corresponding period last year, an official release
said. In terms of foreign exchange earnings, the foreign tourist arrivals
netted nearly Rs 22,958 crore during this period as against 19,112
crore during the corresponding last year, the release said. While
the Taj Group has launched a Blockbuster Winter Holidays package,
Sonia Bakshi of ITC Hotels, who handles corporate relations, said:
"Heritage property is also beginning to attract a lot of tourists
to India, a cost-effective hub for satellites.
Domestic air traffic soars 28 percent on budget airlines
Domestic air passenger traffic has grown over 28 per cent to 425,000
in October 2005, compared with 331,000 in the same period last year.
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The highest ever growth rate in
passenger traffic has been mainly due to rock bottom fares offered
by low-cost carriers, which have started full-fledged operations
in the last few months. In August, the domestic passenger traffic
growth rate was 20.1 per cent. According to the latest data released
by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), passenger traffic-international
and domestic-in October 2005 was 598,000 compared with 481,000 last
year. International passengers traffic at 173,000 in October 2005
saw growth of 18 per cent compared with 150,000 the same period
last year.
Increase in Foreign Tourist Arrivals
Foreign tourist arrivals recorded a steady jump with over 33 lakhs
till November this year, registering an increase of 3.5 per cent.
This was against a total of 29,59,850 foreign tourists visiting
the country during the corresponding period last year, an official
release said. In terms of foreign exchange earnings, the foreign
tourist arrivals netted nearly Rs 22,958 crore during this period
as against 19,112 crore during the corresponding last year, the
release said.
Pharma exports Up
The Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) recorded
exports worth Rs 9,416 crore in the first six months (April to September)
of the current financial year registering a growth of about 14 per
cent over the corresponding period last year.
The current year exports of over Rs 21,000 crore will also push
the drug sector's contribution to India's forex earnings to 7.75
per cent from the current 5 per cent. The growth in drug exports,
despite the pressing generic competition in the global markets,
is attributed to increased Anda approvals in the US market and contribution
from uncoventional markets in Latin America, Australia and the emerging
markets in the Middle East and African region. During 2004-05, the
India's pharma exports were valued at
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Rs 17,052 crore which
was about 18 per cent up from the previous year. additional land which
was the minimum required by law for it to be declared an SEZ.
New Remittance system for NRIs launched
In order to help non-resident Indians (NRIs) to send money home faster,
cheaper and more efficiently a new system of remittance has been announced.
The Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram launched it at the fourth
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, a global conference of overseas Indians in
Hyderabad.
Remittances to India have been steadily increasing over the years,
said Mr. Chidambaram and the
electronic integrated remittance gateway was developed by the Ministry
of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and UTI Bank. He said that of the
$21.7 billion (BD8.2 billion) remitted last year, $17.3 billion came
from workers overseas - especially those living in the Gulf. The new
gateway is expected to encourage NRIs to become investors, rather
than depositors alone. He added that the Indian government was planning
to bring more reforms into the banking sector. 'The Reserve Bank of
India Act and the Banking Regulations Act will be amended during the
parliament session next month,' he said.
'This will take the banking sector reforms forward and strengthen
the economy further. The pension and insurance sector reforms too
are high on the government agenda.'
Government clears Nokia's SEZ proposal
The Finance Ministry has cleared Finnish telecom major Nokia’s
plans for setting up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Sriperumbudur
in Tamil Nadu for manufacturing telecom equipment and mobile handsets.
Highly-placed government officials told Business Line that the necessary
approvals and benefits for Nokia's SEZ has been given after the company
agreed to acquire additional land which was the minimum required by
law for it to be declared an SEZ. |
