Foreign Tourist Arrivals Rise 10.6% In India. Bangladesh, China Lead The Pack

Length of stay, tourist spending and the destinations where that spending happens are equally important, said Hemant Joshi, CEO of Atithi Foundation.

28 Sep 2026, 09:13 · NDTV

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India recorded 6.91 lakh foreign tourist arrivals in August 2026, up 10.6% year-on-year
Bangladesh led growth with over 74,000 tourists, an 80% increase from August 2025
Chinese tourist arrivals more than doubled, exceeding 9,000 visitors in August 2026

Are tourist arrivals back to pre-pandemic levels?

India recorded around 6.91 lakh Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in August 2026, up 10.6 per cent from around 6.25 lakh in the same month last year, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Tourism.

Bangladesh has emerged as the biggest driver of the August increase. More than 74,000 tourists from the neighbouring country visited India during the month, nearly 80 per cent higher than a year earlier.

China also saw a sharp jump. Tourist arrivals from the country crossed 9,000 in August, more than double the level recorded in August 2025.

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The growth from traditional Western markets was much more modest. Tourist arrivals from both the US and the UK increased by around 3 per cent year-on-year.

Canada, Germany, Malaysia and Sri Lanka recorded stronger but more moderate growth, with arrivals rising in the 10-15 per cent range.

Bangladesh And China Top List

The sharp rise in arrivals from Bangladesh and China stands out because both markets had faced disruptions in recent years. The August numbers suggest that India's inbound tourism recovery is not being driven by just the traditional markets.

Hemant Joshi, CEO of Atithi Foundation, a tourism policy think tank, told NDTV that the numbers are encouraging and indicate that India's inbound tourism map may be broadening, particularly with the recovery in markets such as Bangladesh and China.

However, he cautioned against reading too much into a single month's data. "One month's data is too early to call this a structural shift," Joshi said, pointing out that tourism is seasonal and travel patterns can vary significantly across source markets.

He said some of the movement could also be due to timing and base effects. A clearer picture will emerge only after looking at the trend over several months.

Tourist Numbers Are Only Part Of The Story

Joshi said arrivals alone are not enough to measure the value of inbound tourism. Length of stay, tourist spending and the destinations where that spending happens are equally important. This could become particularly significant if India manages to turn the rise in arrivals into longer and wider trips.

" The bigger opportunity is to convert growing international demand into longer, multi-destination stays that spread tourism value beyond India's established gateways," Joshi said. That would mean encouraging international tourists to travel beyond the usual destinations and spend more time across different parts of the country.

{The Ministry of Tourism's tourism data portal identifies the Bureau of Immigration as the source for FTA data.}

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