Despite its efforts to curb crime in the city, Delhi topped the list for crimes against foreign tourists with 135 reported cases registered in 2014, while the popular tourist state of Goa came second, at 66.

The total number of crimes registered against foreign nationals in that year stood at 384. There is, however, no comparison data as the Ministry of Tourism said it does not maintain such data and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) began compiling such data only in 2014. Data for 2015 has not yet been made available.

The data was provided by MoS Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma, during a reply in Lok Sabha. In terms of crime against women (both Indian and foreign), NCRB data shows Delhi registered a total of 1,813 cases of rape in the year 2014 as compared to 1,441 in 2013 and 585 in 2012. In his reply, Sharma listed out various steps the tourism ministry has taken to ensure safety of tourists – both domestic and foreign.

Among the steps listed, Sharma said the government-launched 24X7 tourist helpline 1800 111 363 offers multi-lingual assistance in various languages. The helpline provides advice on action to be taken during times of distress while travelling in India and if needed, the helpline executive also alerts authorities concerned in the vicinity.

The government also released data that shows foreign tourist arrivals has increased in the period 2011 – 2015.

However, there hasn’t been a drop in the number of women tourists visiting the country. According to 2014 data, the highest number of visitors were from the United States (4,93,472), followed by the United Kingdom (3,69,098) and Bangladesh (2,54,492), Russia (1,54,344) and Canada (1,24,309).

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