Atulya Bharat is the slogan luring tourists to India, even though the sales pitch was a tad late, the advertisements portray the diversity of India and the various options our country offers to the most discerning of tourists. Tourism will always be a money spinning business and one of the main drivers of poverty alleviation especially in Thrid World countries.
Tourism contributes 6.23% of the GDP, 8.78% of the total employment and brings in around US$ 11 billion for India. Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in India stood at 5.37 million in 2008 and a similar number in 2009, compared to 562.92 million Domestic Tourist Arrivals (DTA) in 2008. In comparision China received 53 million foreign tourists in 2008, India as a tourist destination has just scratched the surface. There is a huge untapped tourism potential in Historic, Adventure and Wildlife tourism.
But I would like to highlight the fact that even though DTAs are ten times FTAs the domestic tourist is not treated at par with the foreign tourist. Indian fascination for the fairer skin continues, coupled with the lure of the green back. We are treated as second rate tourists in our own country when visiting tourist destinations which are also popular with foreigners. Even though we can match the spending power of the firangi, discrimation persists. The only advantage of serving them better is that they stay on for longer durations compared to us but we have the numbers, don't we ? I was most appalled to learn that the police in Goa has been informally informed not to harass the foreign tourist, I wonder what is the basis for that, is it because of their growing clout in Goa or plain and simple discrimination. The Goa police pipms don't have any problems with harassing domestic tourists as they are aware that it won't make any difference. as we don't have any other attractive alternatives. Are we given such special treatment in Russia or Israel ?
Another very interesting experience happened with me, when I was in Hampi, Karnataka recently; was the paucity of Hindi speaking guides. Hence I had to hire one in English, this guide of mine was contemplating sending his son to learn French in Banglore, this reflects the fact that the income from foreign tourists was so lucrative that he was willing to send his son to learn a foreign language at an exorbitant cost. This cost will have to be recovered along with his daily expenditure from the tourist, i.e. Indian or foreign. There are some systemic problems as well, why couldn't the Karnataka Government impart training in Hindi, when they could do so for Kannada and English? With these 3 languages he can cater to the huge number of Indian and English speaking tourists that visit Hampi every year. Otherwise we will have to visit our own country with the latest copies of Lonely Planet as guides are getting very expensive to hire.
We not only have to increase foreign tourist arrivals but also make sure that the huge domestic tourist industry is not left in the lurch. The Indian tourism industry should take a leaf out of the Bharti Airtel's and Tata Motor's of India and try to replicate their success by catering to the aam admi.
A very interesting and important point brought forward. The problem that you have so briefly described here is deeper and larger than it seems. It is also not really as difficult as it looks to bring about the change required. But the problem faced by Indians is not just the favouritism of the white skin but also corruption at every level....
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