Maldives Tourist Forum

When tourists pay for goods and services in other countries, the money generated is reflected as national travel receipts for the host countries. The contribution made to the economy of a country by tourism would depend upon these receipts, and would establish the importance that tourism has for that country. In India and especially in holidays Kerala can be spent fruitfully with minimum costs, if the tour is planned meticulously well in advance.

A simple measure is to calculate the percentage of receipts from the international tourist in relation to the Gross National Product (GNP). This measure is of greater significance for those countries like India which do not have a larger base and significant growth in domestic tourism, except in states like Kerala.

But even in these countries, the international receipts provide the best indicator of the economic importance of the tourism industry to a country. When analyzing the information from countries like Canada France, Germany USA and Switzerland the receipts from international tourism made up a noteworthy percentage of their GDP. Even a small place like Hong Kong could attract millions of tourists and it resulted in phenomenal revenue to the local government. Many other destinations are now emerging fast and are offering enough competition to the prominent tourist centers of the bygone era. More developments are underway in the emerging ‘Asian tigers’ namely China and India.

It would be apparent that many of the countries received substantial contributions from tourism receipts into their economics. Apart from Canada, for Japan and a few other developed nations, earnings from international tourism do not form a major component of their GDP. Unfortunately, India’s earnings are the lowest in the list. Tourism in India as a whole is yet to gather momentum and we can hope that with the implementation of the crash programme for improving the tourism infrastructure, we can reach a reasonable level if not a considerable ‘height’ from the lowest depths we are now at present.

Interesting point. I think tourism is the number one source of income in the Maldives, which used to be fishing. It seems they have made their mark on the international tourism community by offering very high end accommodation options, which have attracted some of the wealthiest people in the world. Perhaps India should aim to attract the same kind of people. It seems to me that at the moment, most visitors to India are backpackers, which is great, but the income from a backpacker is far less than the income from a five-star tourist. Just my five cents worth

I think India has a hard time attracting new a large amounts of tourists because of accommodations. I've heard from my brother and uncle who both traveled there that hotels are either top notch or rubbish. Either you get running water or the toilet is out back kinda thing... Maybe India needs some major hotel chains to open up around the country?

Pertaining to Maldives... I heard India and Sri Lanka are major sources of tourists for the Maldives.

Tourism is now the primary source of income in several countries. In China ,for example the cities of Shanghai and Beijing, their government focus in developing this cities for the improvement of their international tourism.. Thanks for the post.