India’s tourism industry continues to flourish, with the country registering a sharp increase in terms of international arrivals in April 2017.

According to the latest data from India’s Ministry of Tourism, a total of 740,000 overseas travellers visited India last month, 23.5% more than the 599,000 achieved in April 2016.

Bangladesh was the country’s largest source market in April, accounting for 23.1% of total arrivals, followed by the US (10.7%) and UK (10.5%). These three source markets accounted for more than 44% of the total monthly inbound traffic to India. Germany, Australia, Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Russia and Canada completed the top 10 source markets.

India also experienced strong demand for its e-tourist visas in April; the country issued a total 114,000 e-visas during the month, marking a 63.4% year-on-year increase and accounting for 15% of the total monthly arrivals.

For the first four months of 2017, India has now welcomed a total of 3.59 million international visitors, up 15.4% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, India has been proposed as the host country of the official World Tourism Day celebrations in 2019. The announcement was made at the 29th joint meeting of the UNWTO Commissions for Asia and the Pacific, which took place in Bangladesh this week.