India: A Tourist’s Destination

India means many things to many people. A rich mosaic of various cultures, a simmering cauldron that has assimilated different races over the millennium, a developing nation marching on proudly to take its place among the comity of countries, India is truly a tourist's destination.

The country offers various ethnic, regional and linguistic avenues to tourists—both national and foreign. Added to these are the myriad lives of the changing seasons and topography of this vast sub-continent that has been a cauldron of cultures from time immemorial. Pilgrim centres, tourist resorts, lakes and valleys, mountains and hills, desert and arid land—one can take one's pick and chalk out an itenerary suiting one's taste and mood. No other country in the world is so fascinating and enticing for the lovers of flora and fauna as well as those who choose to mix freely with the common fold in order to immobilise their languages, cultures, customs and habits.

With the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Delhi in 2010 only, just 17 months away from now tourism industry is all set to seize the opportunity. Several schemes are on the anvil to attract both domestic and foreign tourists. The campaigns like “Incredible India” and “Atithi Devo Bhavah” (Guest is god) have already yielded significant results in order to promote tourism in the country.

Fourth Most Favoured Country
According to a recent survey, India has been ranked as the fourth most favoured country for holidays, ahead of South Africa and Switzerland. It was done after examining the various aspects of tourism, including existing policies, infrastructure, marketing strategies and prepare a plan for increasing the flow of foreign tourists. The entry of low-cost airlines has provided a fillip to tourism industry. The other catalyst is medical tourism. The number of foreigners visiting India to avail quality, inexpensive medical treatment is growing very fast.

Atithi Devo Bhavah
It is said that the traditional treatment of a visitor in India is based on the mythological concept of ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’, which was the mantra for the tourism sector in the country. The campaign of the ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ under an ambitious programme is to attract more tourists. It is aimed at capacity building for service providers and stakeholders in the tourism sector to make the visitors aware of the benefits in the country and the need to treat them with traditional care and utmost courtesy. This has been further enhanced by the New National Tourism Policy, which revolves round a framework—Government-led, private sector driven and community-welfare oriented.

The 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) to the tourism sector also aimed at ensuring that the tourist to India gets “physically invigorated, mentally rejuvenated, culturally enriched, spiritually elevated and feels India within him.


Incredible India
It might be down but it is certainly not out. Struck by the fear of terrorism and global economic recession, the Indian tourism sector is showing first signs of revival and is holding out a promise of sound recovery by October-December 2008.The figure of foreign tourist arrivals for January and February 2009 has shown an upward trend. Usually, January 2009 sees greater foreign tourist inflow as compared to February 2009, when the tourist season begins to taper away. In 2009, however, there has been an increase of 15,000 tourists in February over January 2009.And that is not all. The Tourism Ministry is expecting a 10-20 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the coming months. Early booking enquiries and reports from tour operators reflect that the tourism sector is coming out of the rut. The coming tourist season (October-December 2009) would see a slight revival. The tourism industry is expecting a 10-20 per cent increase in the coming months. In this time of economic recession and increasing safety concerns, it is a big thing.The projection of all incentive packages offered by the Ministry and reports from hotels on booking enquiries also reflect that in 2009 would be better than 2008, when the sector was hit by a “double whammy” of recession and Mumbai terrorist attacks.

PATA Report

The latest report of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), a non-profit travel trade organisation, shows that India is ranked eighth in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of foreign tourist inflow. While countries like China, Singapore and Thailand have shown a percentage decline in the number of tourist arrivals, India’s average (5.6 per cent) is even above the world average of two per cent. While Indonesia leads in the region with 15.4 per cent of foreign tourist arrivals, India is eighth and follows Macau (11.8 per cent), Fiji (8 per cent), Chile (7.7 per cent), Cambodia (7.1 per cent), Republic of Korea (6.1 per cent) and Mexico (5.9 per cent).

North East Potential
The Union Government gives great importance to the development of tourist infrastructure in the North-Eastern Region in view of immense tourist potential of the region. The rich natural beauty, serenity and exotic flora and fauna of the area in the eight States of this region are invaluable resources for the development of ecotourism.

The National Eco-Tourism Policy and guidelines aim to preserve, retain and enrich natural growth of tourism with its positive impacts on environmental protection and community development.

Tourism in India is a window to our life and culture. The Government has been doing a commendable job to prompt tourism by selling new trends in the industry to give foreign tourist a genuine and pleasant experience. No wonder that the country is called a tourist destination.