Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey begins in Andamans

Port Blair, Sep 6 (PTI) To develop better tourism policies and world-class infrastructure facilities, the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has started Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an official said.

The main objective of the survey is to understand expenditure on domestic tourism along with information on household, visitors' profile and trip characteristics in relation to domestic overnight trips, required for preparation of Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT).

A senior official at the Directorate of Information, Publicity and Tourism Office (IP&T) said, "The DTES will help us understand better about tourism patterns and expenditure by travellers and their profile. It will also help us understand where we are lacking and what more needs to be done to make this archipelago a world-class tourism destination." "The Directorate of Economics & Statistics is participating in this survey along with National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Field Operation Division in Port Blair. We would like to urge all the tourism stakeholders to extend their cooperation to enumerators and supervisors during the data collection exercise. We will keep all information confidential," he said, while adding that the survey will continue till June 2026, but in Andaman and Nicobar Islands it may take some more time due to difficult terrain and remoteness.

While elaborating more on DTES, he said the objective is to collect data on household expenses on domestic travel and tourism activities. Besides, we will also collect information on visitors' profiles, the kind of trip they are opting for, and the amount they are spending on overnight, same-day leisure trips, on accommodation, local transport, food, and other services.

Once the DTES is done, it will feed all the data to the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), which measures the economic contribution of tourism to a national economy.

In 2024, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recorded a growth of 120 per cent in domestic travellers and 27 per cent rise in foreign tourist footfall.

Major tourist attractions, such as the National Memorial Cellular Jail (in Port Blair) and Baratang Limestone Caves at North and Middle Andaman district, experienced higher footfall in 2024.

The number of visitors attending the Sound and Light Show at the National Memorial Cellular Jail saw a substantial rise, with 4,17,944 people witnessing the show in 2024, compared to 2,67,327 in 2023, the IP&T official said.

As per the tourism department, a total of 2,35,061 domestic and 4,461 foreign tourists travelled to Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2022, while in 2023 the figure went up to 3,23,619 (domestic) and 9,025 (foreign) travellers. In 2024, the domestic travellers rose to 7,10,397, while foreign tourists were 11,497. PTI SN SN RG