Foreign tourist arrivals in October stood at 5.89 lakh, up 5.94 per cent from the year-ago period.
In October 2012, the country saw 5.56 lakh foreign tourists arriving, 0.6 per cent less than the year-ago number of 5.6 lakh, according to Tourism Ministry data.
The number of international tourists who visited India in the year till October stood at 53.3 lakh, up 4 per cent from 51.24 lakh in the corresponding period last year.
Foreign exchange earnings from tourism rose 4.40 per cent to Rs 8,513 crore last month, compared with Rs 8,154 crore in October 2012.
Last month, the number of visas issued on arrival grew 31 per cent to 1,911. These visas were issued for the nationals of 11 countries, with the highest for Japan, followed by New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore.
The Government had launched the ‘visa on arrival’ scheme in January 2010 for tourists from five countries— Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2011, the scheme was extended to six more countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar.
During the January-October period, the government had issued about 15,770 visas under this scheme, up 28.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.