NEW DELHI: The dip in Indian travellers to the US witnessed in 2017 after a gap of eight years is not one-way.Last year also saw 7% decline in number of US residents travelling to India over 2016, according to the US department of commerce’s National Travel and Trade Office (NTTO). In fact India was the only big country in the list of top 15 foreign destinations for US residents that saw a decline in their visits 2017 over the previous year. The other country, at number 15, is Costa Rica.The NTTO data shows 3.8 crore US residents travelled overseas (not including Canada and Mexico) in 2017, 9% more than the 3.5 crore a year earlier. However, India saw 11.11 lakh of these travellers, down 7% from 11.95 lakh in 2016. Sharat Dhall, CEO of travel portal Yatra, feels a stronger rupee in 2017 may have made Indian an expensive destination then due to which Americans chose other places.“In 2016, the rupee-dollar exchange rate was averaging at Rs 67-68. In 2017, it was averaging at Rs 64,” Dhall said. The rupee’s devaluation started happening earlier this year and accelerated from April onwards.The top pull in Asia for US residents was China, followed by Japan and India. The bulk of foreign travel by Americans happens to Mexico and Canada. The overseas destinations are led by countries like UK, France and Spain. In a report on inbound tourism to India, CAPA Centre for Aviation has pointed out that “even amongst the top 10 source markets for leisure travel, India’s share of their outbound traffic remains small.”