The Ministry of Tourism clarifies that the Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India from the USA during the year 2017 have registered a positive growth of 6.17 per cent over the year 2016. The FTAs from USA in India has never declined since the year 2010.
However, it is observed from the report of National Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO), USA that the outbound tourists from the USA to India have declined by seven per cent in the year 2017, as compared to year 2016. The figures of outbound travellers in the report are 1195000 and 1111000 for the year 2016 and 2017 respectively. In the said report released by NTTO, it is also mentioned that Traveller volume is based on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advanced Passenger Information System wherein all airlines are required to electronically submit passenger data on flights arriving into and departing from the United States. Thus, it is obvious that the source of data for the report is only airlines reporting. In the cases where direct flight between USA and India is not operating, it is not known whether the final destination or the transit destination is reported as India by the passengers. Moreover, departures at International check posts other than airports are not captured in the report. Therefore, it may not contain the complete information on the outbound departures from the USA.
On the other hand, the Bureau of Immigration of India (BoI) compiles the data of (FTA) from the records of scanned passport of each person arriving at all the International Check Posts in India, which include Airports, Sea Ports and the Land Check Posts.
