Foreign tourists continue to shun India over sexual assault fears and concerns over bad civil governance.

Marketers and travel agents say the Government has not done enough to change the picture.

Poll impact That the country is gearing up for elections this year may also hit the inbound flow of foreign tourists. “Most foreigners tend to avoid travelling during election year, anticipating trouble and killings. This will continue till March,” said Gour Kanjilal, Executive Director, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

“April-June is the summer heat, which will keep away foreigners, though some will come for the monsoon, to Kerala and the backwaters,” said Gour Kanjilal. “The actual year starts from September. So, nine months are gone this year. I don't have a very optimistic picture for 2014.”

He added too much bad news is emanating from India. “Tourists wake up to 150 flight cancellations. People want to avoid biometric scanning here. Visa issues are confusing, with each Indian embassy having their own interpretation of visa.'' Stating that tourists tend to think India has got no civic governance, the IATO chief said: “Take Mumbai, the whole city is dug up in the name of the Metro. There are massive security barriers to check passengers emanating from the international airport. All of this does not give a civilised picture of our country, and the first casualty is tourism.''

Though the government has been banking on tourist dollars to help reduce the country's yawning current account deficit, the security situation across the country is making foreign tourists bypass India for other Asian destinations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, added travel agent Manish Panchal, from Arunoday Travels.

While the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the country in 2013 has recorded a small rise of 4.1 per cent over 2012, Kanjilal said it is still far below the tourism industry's 10 per cent target.

“Instances of rape and molestation across the country appear to have created a fear psychosis among travellers, with the US, the UK and Australia issuing travel advisories asking women tourists to be cautious.” In a recent study by Assocham, nearly 72 per cent of the tour operators said there have been a number of cancellations of bookings especially from women tourists from the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.

“These countries happen to be India’s core feeder markets. These were the countries from where we expected tourists round the year, given the bounce-back in their economy. They just did not arrive,” Kanjilal said.

Costly destination

Panchal said India is a very expensive destination, with ticket costs have risen 40 per cent and a one-day trip on the Palace on Wheels at $500 per person.

Added Kanjilal: “India boasts some of the costliest products in the world. Not only have we become an overpriced tourist destination for travellers with high aviation fuel, we have high taxation of 39 per cent, which is luxury, service, sales, VAT, and even road tax.”

Data from the ministry of tourism shows that during January-November 2013, 68.48 lakh tourists visited India, against 65.78 lakh in 2012. Foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism in terms of dollars in 2013 were $18.133 billion with a growth of 2.2 per cent compared with $17.737 billion in the year before. FEE from tourism in rupee terms during 2013 stood at Rs 1,05,836 crore, registering a growth of 12 per cent over the previous year’s Rs 94,487 crore.

“We could have easily earned $20 billion FEE. Dollar-wise, our value was more since the rupee has gone down. The rupee came down after July and August which has helped FEE,'' Kanjilal said. “Things have to be rectified. We need to have civic governance, ensure safety and facilitate visa arrangements. We have good airports, good hotels. We have 135 embassies and have now appointed agencies. We need to get our act together to ensure that tourist arrivals in 2014 do not dive.''

The IATO chief also highlighted an advantage. “Tourists stay in India for a minimum of 28 nights. While the whole of Europe could be over in 10 days, Hong Kong in three days, Singapore in two days and one can finish Dubai in two days, India has the largest minimum stay – 28 days, which is our only advantage. We need to concentrate on that.''

> amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in

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