New Delhi, Hit by the global economic downturn, India would see a 10 percent decline in the estimated growth rate of the tourism industry this fiscal, according to an industry lobby report.

The report by the Tourism Committee of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said the tourism sector would grow only five percent in 2008-09, down from the estimated 15 percent.

The number of inbound tourists from the US has already taken a hit and the situation would be worse next year as the global economic outlook remains grim.

As the inbound tourism from the US would fall by 10-15 percent, the number of tourists from Europe would go down by five percent, the report said.

“The outbound tourism from India would also fall to an extent of five to seven percent as meltdown is being experienced in all segments of Indian economy and particularly so in tourism,” Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said in the report.

“Its pinch was felt during Diwali of 2008 as leisure tourism did not witness much of significant movement," he said, adding that this trend would continue for the forthcoming Christmas and New Year seasons also.

The chamber, however, said foreign exchange earnings through tourism would not suffer as the loss from US and Europe will be compensated from other countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The states that would be hit badly include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

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