| Indian tourism just had a triple treat. Foreign tourist arrivals, for the first time, crossed the three million mark in 2004. Lonely Planet and Conde Nast, the two leading publications in global tourism, separately ranked India among the top five and top 10 holiday destinations. And the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)-the "Olympics of the travel industry"-recently forecast India would be the third fastest growing tourism economy in the world.  | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | GLOBAL LEAGUE: Chowdhury with WTTC delegates in Delhi | | Suddenly, an industry that was growing in small and often unsteady doses (see chart) is aiming high. Very high. President A.P.J. Kalam, addressing the WTTC global summit in Delhi last week, set the target of 15 million annual tourists in five years-five times the 2004 figure. Tourists bring with them jobs and income. Already responsible for 24 million jobs, tourism will generate two million new employment in 10 years. Annual tourism earnings of about $4 billion (Rs 17,600 crore) should more than double to $10 billion by 2015. But before counting chickens that are yet to hatch, let us see what made foreigners flock to India in the past two years. If India is hot right now, it's thanks to a host of random developments. Arguably, it all began with the IT boom, which coupled with the unceasing tide of outsourcing, made India a global buzz. That put India in the global consciousness and led to a surge in business travellers. And, as the saying goes, today's business travellers are tomorrow's leisure travellers. Nature helped too. The SARS outbreak in 2002-3 bypassed India and the tsunami affected countries like Thailand more than it impacted India. Then, the country's old charm of being relatively unexplored is a trump card. "People are looking for new destinations and India's USP is that it's a very rare kaleidoscope," says Douglas Gollan, editor-in-chief, Elite Traveler. The Government also contributed. The two-year-old Incredible India campaign has caught the attention of the global tourism industry. "One gets to learn about the people, about their beliefs and that's why it works," sums up Lonely Planet CEO Judy Slatyer. The Tourism Ministry is now pushing it to the next level with its new campaign Atithi Devo Bhava (the Guest is God). The open sky policy in the aviation sector has made travel to India easier and cheaper (see story "Summer Surprise"). | | HOW INDIA CAN BECOME A TOURISM HOT SPOT | | | | But these initiatives alone won't deliver 15 million tourists a year. Even with three million tourists, India is just a dot on the global tourism market of over 700 million tourists a year. China alone attracts more than 100 million foreigners every year. India's share in global tourism earnings is equally abysmal-$4 billion of $500 billion. The three major barriers to growth in tourism are accessibility, affordability and attitude. India's notoriously inefficient and insufficient infrastructure makes many tourist spots inaccessible. Global tour operators also complain of high hotel tariffs. The callous attitude of everybody, starting from airport officials to cab drivers and tourist guides, doesn't help. J.W. Marriott Jr, chairman of Marriott International, says India and China are more like the dragon and the snail. In China, Marriott got approval for 14 hotels in 18 months. In India, it took that long to get approval for one. | | WHAT'S LACKING | | | Poor infrastructure raises the cost and time required to reach many tourist destinations. | | Insufficient and expensive hotel rooms. The shortfall is estimated to be 1.5 lakh rooms. | | Air connectivity, though better than in the past, is still a big put-off for foreign tourists. | | Pathetic maintenance of monuments and other places of tourist interest. | | The Tourism Ministry's lack of control over most factors that can boost tourist arrivals. | | Lack of awareness and information on India's tourism potential. | | At the WTTC inaugural session, Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury candidly admitted to the potential crisis. "There is a requirement for almost 1.5 lakh hotel rooms in all categories across India, which alone will require more than $10 billion of investment," she said. Investment requirements in airports, road and rail connectivity, power and telecom will be five or six times more. The Tourism Ministry doesn't have control over any of these. Campaigns are all the Tourism Ministry can do on its own, and that is what it is trying to do more and more of. The ministry's budget has been raised by 57 per cent this year-from Rs 500 crore in 2004-5 to Rs 786 crore in 2005-6. The Atithi Devo Bhava programme hopes to bring about an attitudinal shift among the service providers-right from porters and taxi drivers to shopkeepers and guides. The ministry also needs to promote destinations other than Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan and the Taj. Last month, it unveiled plans to showcase the Northeast. Given the country's diversity, India also needs to be marketed as an all-season destination. With its low base in global tourism traffic, India can-and most probably will-continue to attract a higher number of tourists year after year. But to transform itself from a pygmy to a giant in global tourism the country will have to show lots in performance. RELATED STORIES: Tour de Farce Welcome Signs Matching Wits Index
|
"Word of mouth is the best form of publicity and India has that buzz."
"Travellers have many choices today. Sustained brand building is the key." 
"India must improve its infrastructure or it will miss the coming boom." 
"Incredible India successfully created an image but it must meet expectations."
"I'd like to have a Mandarin here but investing in India is like hell before paradise."
