- India’s major services exports in 2013-14 are computer services (45.8% share); other business services (18.8% share) including professional and consulting services (10.2% share), technical and trade-related services (7.8% share) and R & D services (0.8% share); travel (11.8% share); transport (11.5% share); and financial, insurance and pension services (5.8% share).
- India is fifth highest in terms of services value added content in its exports after Hong Kong, Iceland, Singapore, and EU-27.
- Services share in employment at 28.5% in 2011-12 is higher than in industry at 24.4%. Among services, employment elasticity was the highest in ‘financial, insurance, real estate, and business services’ and ‘transport, storage, and communication’.
- According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the US$ 7 trillion travel and tourism sector’s contribution to world GDP increased in 2013 to 9.5%, creating 4.7 million new jobs. This resulted in total employment in this sector of nearly 266 million, that is one in eleven jobs in the world. This sector is estimated to grow by 4.3% in 2014 and generate 6.5 million new jobs.
- The latest World Tourism Barometer of the United Nation’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) also shows that international tourist arrivals reached 1.1 billion in 2014, a 4.7% increase over the previous year and for 2015 the forecast is a 3 to 4% increase. France has the highest share in International tourist arrivals (ITAs) and the US in International tourism receipts (ITRs) in 2013.
- India’s share in ITAs is a paltry 0.6% compared to 7.8% in France and 6.4% in the US. Even Vietnam and Indonesia have higher shares than India. However, in terms of ITRs, India’s share at 1.5% is better than those of Vietnam and Indonesia though it is way below the share of the US at 14.5%. Even in terms of growth, countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey are ahead of India in 2013.
- In India’s National Accounts Statistics there is no separate heading for tourism. As per the Second Tourism Satellite Account of India (TSA), the contribution of tourism to total GDP during 2012-13 was 6.9% (3.7% direct and 3.1% indirect) and to total employment 12.4% (5.3% direct and 7.0% indirect).
- After poor foreign exchange earnings (FEE) growth in dollar terms at 4.0%, despite growing foreign tourist arrivals at 5.9%, in 2013, there was an increase in growth of both foreign tourist arrivals (7.1%) and FEEs (6.6%) in 2014.
