Rising tide of Chinese tourists visiting India

By Swaran Singh

Figures released by India's Ministry of Tourism celebrated tourist arrivals for 2017 crossing the 10 million mark, showing an impressive growth of 15.6 percent over 2016. What is most interesting in this is that China, which stood at 13th overall for India's inbound tourists in 2014, has moved six rungs up the ladder in just three years taking 8th position.

Use of India's e-visas makes it more interesting. It was during his May 2015 visit and in his speech at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised his own government, including his accompanying foreign secretary, by suddenly announcing e-visas for Chinese nationals. This year, e-visa usage marked a sharp 57 increase over 2016; this again shows China fairing even better, emerging as the 5th largest user of India's e-visa facility, leaving advanced nations like Canada, France and Germany far behind.

Visitors take a selfie photograph in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra on January 3, 2018. [Photo: VCG/DOMINIQUE FAGET]

Still more startling exposition with deeper implications for future comes from the 2017 Inbound Travel Study by TripAdvisor. This shows China topping the list in terms of numbers of website visitors exploring Indian tourist destinations. This portrays an impressive 134 per cent increase for 2017 over the previous year. Way back in 2014, China overtook the United States becoming the world's largest outbound travel market both in terms of number of tourists and also total travel expenditure. Connectivity has since come to be the buzzword of the Chinese elite.

The actual numbers of Chinese tourists visiting India is perhaps much better in helping to put things in perspective. The number of Chinese visitors has clocked a fourfold increase in the last ten years: from a mere 62,300 in 2006 to 251,313 for 2016. This was perhaps a result of president Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi having decided to observe 2014 as 'India Tourism Year' in China; 2015 as 'China Tourism Year' in India; and 2016 as China-India Tourism Year! As a result, officials proposed a target of raising this inflow by ten times to reach one million visitors, which is not much in view of the total number of China's outbound tourists. However, their 73-day long military standoff at Doklam last year, leading to the Chinese embassy issuing several advisories to Chinese visitors including the last one being issued on 27th December, resulted in making the total number of Chinese visitors to India for 2017 dip to 225,482. This has provided a lesson for both sides. This should prove to be an aberration to expanding the number of Chinese visitors to India, and for overall efforts to expand mutual understanding on each side.

There are indeed multiple factors that can facilitate a rapid increase of Chinese tourists visiting India. According to the World Tourism Organization, China's outbound tourist numbers were expected to hit 100 million by 2020, but the number has been reached already. India is bound to receive its share in this growing number of China's outbound tourists. This hope is also premised on the fact that in last three years alone, the number of India's inbound tourists has doubled from 5 to 10 million. This speaks volumes for this increasing visibility and lure of India's tourist destinations and infrastructure, and the Chinese should be no exception to this.

As of now, it is understandable that countries like Mauritius and even Sri Lanka in South Asia may be receiving more Chinese tourists than India. But in the longer run, India's large size and range of destinations -- that include 36 UNESCO World Heritage sights, 10 bio-geographical zones, 26 biotech provinces and other scenic, historic, adventure, and cultural destinations -- hold much greater potential. The number of Chinese travelling abroad has already risen from a mere 40 million during 2007 to 145 million for 2017 and China Outbound Tourism Research Institute projects numbers reaching 154 million in 2018. The shear physical size and expanding tourism infrastructure will serve India better in welcoming such big volumes in the coming times.

According to the general discourse on linkages between global tourism and development, the tourism industry and visitors are believed to undergo an exponential rise once national per capita incomes rise above a certain limit. This happened in the United States during the 1960s, in Europe during the 1970s and for Japan during the 1980s. China has witnessed similar trend since the early 2000s while Indian domestic and outbound tourism has also witnessed an impressive rise during the last few years. As of now only ten percent of Chinese travel abroad, but increasing connectivity and mobility promises to promote better mutual understanding where inter-societal ties will become major influences on inter-state policies. Both China and India account for a booming middle class of nearly 300 million each. These enlightened and empowered citizens can help in building stronger partnerships. Already, over half a million Indians travel to China each year adding to mutual awareness and goodwill. The popularity of Indian films in China provides a most apt example of these changing ground realities.

China already sends to India more tourists than India's other neighbors like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and Japan, with whom India enjoys much friendlier ties. China's post-1980s generations have grown up with Chinese television series "Journey to the West" romanticizing India as Tianzhu of ancient epics. Lately as well, there has been increasing consciousness about Buddhism and a stronger incline towards reviving links with Buddhist circuits in India and Nepal. With recent China-India official interactions beginning to untie their knots in the last year, this year can unleash their synergies. Increasing numbers of Chinese visitors to India may then become goodwill ambassadors.

(Swaran Singh is professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and Visiting Professor at Research Institute for Indian Ocean Economies in Kunming.)