India saw the highest foreign tourism arrivals from Bangladesh in the past three years in a row ending 2020, followed by the US and the UK, according to an official estimate.
In 2018, around 2.25 million Bangladeshi tourists travelled to India, says the Bureau of Immigration of the neighbouring country, which registered 10.93 million tourist arrivals in the following year.
Of them, almost 2.58 million arrivals (23.6%) were from Bangladesh in 2019. Total tourist arrivals fell due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 -- but Bangladesh still managed to grab the maximum chunk of the pie (20%).
Amid the global pandemic in 2020, the number of arrivals from Bangladesh declined to 549,273.
‘Mandatory’ medical tourism
A study by the Indian government, citing the information on visa type for the year 2016, reveals that 77%, 7.3% and 5,9% of the Bangladeshis arriving in India were on tourist, medical and business visas respectively in that year.
About 54% of all foreign medical visitors going to India for treatment are Bangladeshis, the Indian Ministry of Tourism said last year, adding that the number was increasing gradually.
The inflow of medical tourists from Bangladesh has surged by 83% in the last three years since 2018.
In 2015, a total of 120,388 Bangladeshis travelled to India for medical treatment, with the figure rising to 221,751 in 2017.
In 2009, Bangladesh accounted for 23.6% of all medical tourists and the arrivals jumped to 57.5% in 2019.
Data shows that India's medical tourism business attracts the most patients for heart surgery, knee transplants, cosmetic surgery, and dental care because the cost of treatment is the lowest in Asia, far less than that in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Over the last three years since 2018, the total number of medical tourists to India has nearly doubled. In 2015, some 2.33 lakh foreigners sought medical care in India; by 2017, that figure had risen to 4.95 lakh, says India’s Bureau of Immigration.
Doubt of reason for visiting?
It has been found that majority of the people visiting with tourist visa are engaged in other activities, a study by the ministry suggests.
However, only very few Bangladesh people recorded their purpose of visit as “business” and majority of them claimed that they came for either religious purpose or for leisure purpose.
A considerable amount of people stays up to nine days in India during their visit but prefer to stay either with friends and relatives or in budget category hotels. Many of them have already visited India six or more times.
Almost 73% of the Bangladeshi tourists have prepared their travel itinerary by themselves without the assistance of travel agents or tour operators. Many of them have dependent on public buses for local transportation within in India.
Only a couple of tourists seek the help of tour operators for packages and out of which only a nominal number of people opted packages costing Tk45,000-75,000. The survey reveals that the majority of them spend below Tk10,000 during their stay in India.
