For analyzing the trends in tourist traffic in various tourism generating markets, the countries of the world can be grouped into ten regions. They are
1. North America
2. Central and South America
3. Western Europe
4. Eastern Europe
5. West Asia
6. East Asia
7. South Asia
8. South-east Asia
9. Africa
10. Australia

It has been seen that South Asia, West Asia, South-East Asia and East Asia, have been the main tourist generating markets for India followed by Western Europe and North America during the period 1981-84. In those times, the greatest contribution to the national income through tourism came from South Asia followed by Western Asia, South-East Asia and East Asia respectively. The arrivals from West Asia registered an increase of 8.6 percent in 1982 in comparison to 1981, which accounted for 11.8 percent in aggregate arrivals in 1982. In Kerala beach tourism was getting more popular and started attracting more visitors in those times.

The traffic from South and South-East Asia constituting 12.3 percent and 7.6 percent of total tourist arrivals registered a decline of 6.7 percent and 0.2 percent respectively in 1982 due to different reasons. The arrivals from East Asia improved its share in aggregate tourist traffic from 4.1 percent in 1981 to 4.4 percent in 1982. The share of West Asia also improved from 10.9 percent in 1981 to 11.8 percent in 1982 registering in increase of 8.6 percent.

In 1983, South Asia improved its share in tourist traffic and registered a growth of 7.2 percent, whereas the share of West Asia was reduced from 10.9 percent in 1982 to 10.4 percent in 1983 registering a decline of 8.7 percent. The tourist traffic from East Asia and South East Asia showed a decline of about 11.1 percent and 3.6 percent respectively, and thus reduced their share also during 1983. In 1984, South Asia recorded the maximum growth of 13.4 percent, followed by East Asia (7.9 percent). However, a negative growth rate has been observed in West Asia (-14.5 percent) and South East Asia (-8.7 percent).