Indian tourism industry can do better

[Cricketics]

Off late I am watching a lot of travel videos from plenty of vloggers etc, and also reading on forums etc. I was curious to find out India's ranking and was surprised to see that our ranking is 34th in terms of the number of tourists India receives every year. I always expected India to be in top 15, being such a vast country and with so much to see. 

 

India recieves 8.9 million tourists a year compared to China which gets 58.9 million. 

 

You read forums or watch videos from back packers etc, you notice their love for India and how there is so much. to see. India can surely increase this 8.9 million tourist number to 15-20 million. What you think is lacking. 

 

India is a country which is more like a continent, with so much to see. Many people, backpackers etc want to go to India, but somehow we still haven't crossed the 10 million visitors mark per year.

 

There is a lot of potential in India. What you think needs to be corrected, done to bring in more tourists?

[Laaloo]

More safety and publicity and of course taking care of our history

[Cricketics]

7 minutes ago, Laaloo said:

More safety and publicity and of course taking care of our history

I also don't see heavy advertisements as we see for countries Greece, Switzerland, France, Spain etc.

I mean we are stuck with advertising India Gate in Delhi or Taj Mahal picture always when t comes to advertising about India or mentioning about "vist the beautiful beaches of Goa". They should also be talking about pink city of Rajasthan, advertising about the beauty of Kerala or something similar, covering Western India in a better way also touching upon the Himachal area. 

 

Safety is indeed a concern yes, but India has gained travelers in last one year.  So I am sure we can gain more.  

[sandeep]

30 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Off late I am watching a lot of travel videos from plenty of vloggers etc, and also reading on forums etc. I was curious to find out India's ranking and was surprised to see that our ranking is 34th in terms of the number of tourists India receives every year. I always expected India to be in top 15, being such a vast country and with so much to see. 

 

India recieves 8.9 million tourists a year compared to China which gets 58.9 million. 

 

You read forums or watch videos from back packers etc, you notice their love for India and how there is so much. to see. India can surely increase this 8.9 million tourist number to 15-20 million. What you think is lacking. 

 

India is a country which is more like a continent, with so much to see. Many people, backpackers etc want to go to India, but somehow we still haven't crossed the 10 million visitors mark per year.

 

There is a lot of potential in India. What you think needs to be corrected, done to bring in more tourists?

Proper packaging and presentation - India has a lot to offer, but its not an easily accessible destination.  Logistics are a big challenge and disincentive for folks to visit.   I have been to a lot of places all over the world, and compared to India, the tourism infrastructure in even poor countries is better.  

 

Compare Angkor Wat in Cambodia to Ajanta & Ellora near Aurangabad.  I have been to both places, both have spectacular history and beauty to offer.  The former has at least 100 hotels within 10 minutes driving distance - Ajanta Ellora do not have anything  remotely comparable.  The presentation of the site, availability and quality of guides, etc is also not comparable.  To be blunt, our touristy sites have too much of the desi experience - overrun with low quality touts and merchandise - annoying and confusing - not well-curated and impressive.  I personally enjoyed my trip to Ajanta/Ellora, but thats because I love history and architecture, and I was ready to overlook the dozens of irritants that took away from the experience.  Shopping for souvenirs was another nightmare - 50 small crappy 'shops' all selling the same basic garbage.  And all competing on price, while taking a big fat stinky dump on quality.  They even sell color-xerox duplicates of coffee table books - at first glance they look fine, but then you realize that the big photos in the book are all blurry.  

 

The underlying problem is that the tourism market in India caters to its market - which puts way more emphasis on cost and price, over quality.   When the majority of the tourists are on the lower-end, the services and offerings will develop to cater to that, but in the process, this ruins what could be a genuinely high quality experience for the crowd that would happily pay more.  Its not enough that the hardy tourists "love" India and the unique crazy experience it offers.  Today's average tourist wants a certain level of comfort, convenience, with a curated 'experience' - with varying degrees of independence and flexibility. 

 

Of course, the Angkor-Wat to Ajanta comparison also overlooks the fact that Cambodia is very close to high traffic tourist area of Thailand and rest of South East Asia, which makes a short 4 day trip to Angkor feasible for a big potential market.  Its unlikely that anybody from Europe or further is going to fly 15 hours for a 4 day trip.  

 

Ultimately, what needs to happen is for the overall minimum quality of the tourism infrastructure and experience to rise significantly - once that happens, tourism will grow and grow exponentially.  

 

[sandeep]

56 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

I also don't see heavy advertisements as we see for countries Greece, Switzerland, France, Spain etc.

I mean we are stuck with advertising India Gate in Delhi or Taj Mahal picture always when t comes to advertising about India or mentioning about "vist the beautiful beaches of Goa". They should also be talking about pink city of Rajasthan, advertising about the beauty of Kerala or something similar, covering Western India in a better way also touching upon the Himachal area. 

 

Safety is indeed a concern yes, but India has gained travelers in last one year.  So I am sure we can gain more.  

Advertising is less of an issue - offering curated packaged 'experiences' to big tour groups is something that needs to be worked on.  Its unrealistic to sell "India" for somebody who wants to take a 1 week or 10 day trip.  I think the 'golden triangle' of Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan is one that is very popular with tourists - similar itineraries need to be created for other parts of the country.  Or interest driven itineraries that may hop across the country but are put together in advance.  

[rangeelaraja]

1 hour ago, Cricketics said:

Off late I am watching a lot of travel videos from plenty of vloggers etc, and also reading on forums etc. I was curious to find out India's ranking and was surprised to see that our ranking is 34th in terms of the number of tourists India receives every year. I always expected India to be in top 15, being such a vast country and with so much to see. 

 

India recieves 8.9 million tourists a year compared to China which gets 58.9 million. 

 

You read forums or watch videos from back packers etc, you notice their love for India and how there is so much. to see. India can surely increase this 8.9 million tourist number to 15-20 million. What you think is lacking. 

 

India is a country which is more like a continent, with so much to see. Many people, backpackers etc want to go to India, but somehow we still haven't crossed the 10 million visitors mark per year.

 

There is a lot of potential in India. What you think needs to be corrected, done to bring in more tourists?

 

@Cricketics

 

I am aware of most of these vloggers.  Most of these guys know that internet usage has rocketed in India due to JIO freebies.

 

Most  are  out to make money off India on Youtube.

 

 

[Cricketics]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

Proper packaging and presentation - India has a lot to offer, but its not an easily accessible destination.  Logistics are a big challenge and disincentive for folks to visit.   I have been to a lot of places all over the world, and compared to India, the tourism infrastructure in even poor countries is better.  

 

Compare Angkor Wat in Cambodia to Ajanta & Ellora near Aurangabad.  I have been to both places, both have spectacular history and beauty to offer.  The former has at least 100 hotels within 10 minutes driving distance - Ajanta Ellora do not have anything  remotely comparable.  The presentation of the site, availability and quality of guides, etc is also not comparable.  To be blunt, our touristy sites have too much of the desi experience - overrun with low quality touts and merchandise - annoying and confusing - not well-curated and impressive.  I personally enjoyed my trip to Ajanta/Ellora, but thats because I love history and architecture, and I was ready to overlook the dozens of irritants that took away from the experience.  Shopping for souvenirs was another nightmare - 50 small crappy 'shops' all selling the same basic garbage.  And all competing on price, while taking a big fat stinky dump on quality.  They even sell color-xerox duplicates of coffee table books - at first glance they look fine, but then you realize that the big photos in the book are all blurry.  

 

The underlying problem is that the tourism market in India caters to its market - which puts way more emphasis on cost and price, over quality.   When the majority of the tourists are on the lower-end, the services and offerings will develop to cater to that, but in the process, this ruins what could be a genuinely high quality experience for the crowd that would happily pay more.  Its not enough that the hardy tourists "love" India and the unique crazy experience it offers.  Today's average tourist wants a certain level of comfort, convenience, with a curated 'experience' - with varying degrees of independence and flexibility. 

 

Of course, the Angkor-Wat to Ajanta comparison also overlooks the fact that Cambodia is very close to high traffic tourist area of Thailand and rest of South East Asia, which makes a short 4 day trip to Angkor feasible for a big potential market.  Its unlikely that anybody from Europe or further is going to fly 15 hours for a 4 day trip.  

 

Ultimately, what needs to happen is for the overall minimum quality of the tourism infrastructure and experience to rise significantly - once that happens, tourism will grow and grow exponentially.  

 

I hear you on this. I was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last month and noticed. amongs all the poverty, what a fine destination the Mexicans have created. Again, Puerto Vallarta offered not just Cancun type Americanized beach vacation, but also offered local Mexican life if you want to enjoy the local life of Mexico. They have some great and some not so great cobblestone roads, but the city is so well organized and even if you don't plan anything or do not stay in the resort area, you can feel safe and at the same time can easily "go with the flow". 

 

Souvenirs, yes. I love collecting shot glasses and other basic stuff as souvenirs as gifts and I remember having hard time findng those in India in my trip last April. I think we can do better in that department surely too. 

[Cricketics]

1 hour ago, rangeelaraja said:

 

@Cricketics

 

I am aware of most of these vloggers.  Most of these guys know that internet usage has rocketed in India due to JIO freebies.

 

Most  are  out to make money off India on Youtube.

 

 

Its fine to make money, but they are doing good deed to to show a lot of countries and attracting new people to numerous places. Forget India, some of the places being covered in Africa or Middle East like Jordan etc, people sometimes won't think of going because they are afraid as they have heard some nasty shyt about those areas in the media. These guys atleast give you a better view of it. 

 

Syria looks amazing btw. 

[sandeep]

4 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

I hear you on this. I was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last month and noticed. amongs all the poverty, what a fine destination the Mexicans have created. Again, Puerto Vallarta offered not just Cancun type Americanized beach vacation, but also offered local Mexican life if you want to enjoy the local life of Mexico. They have some great and some not so great cobblestone roads, but the city is so well organized and even if you don't plan anything or do not stay in the resort area, you can feel safe and at the same time can easily "go with the flow". 

 

Souvenirs, yes. I love collecting shot glasses and other basic stuff as souvenirs as gifts and I remember having hard time findng those in India in my trip last April. I think we can do better in that department surely too. 

Mexico and Caribbean are good examples of 'destination' tourism - sure poverty is there, but there are hotels, resorts and entire sections of town that are "sanitized" and pleasantly accessible for tourists.  This is much more difficult to do in India, given the population density, and the huge variance of budgets among tourists.  Any decent place is going to get more than 50% "local tourists" whose priorities do not mesh well with international or "upscale" tourism.  I don't mean to sound classist, of course desi tourists have full rights to access any destination or site in India, but the govt needs to put in the groundwork to ensure that the facilities are adequate and well-designed to manage the crowds, and the different types of visitors, without ruining the vibe.  This requires detailed planning, hard work, and commitment to execution and oversight - Let's be honest - forget government organizations - these things are a problem in most Desi setups.  

[someone]

Infrastructure is the secondary issue, foremost is still our own people. Other than obvious safety issues, many unnecessary stare, prone to touch and really invade privacy space of other people.
 

Hospitality is key thing there, as outside the resorts/hotels, the actual roads, streets, common people can make the experience uncomfortable...

[Stan AF]

As long as gruesome rapes/murders are happening in india this is never going to improve. We have countries like UK/US issuing travel advisory to their women on avoiding travel to india. Long long way to go really.

[R!TTER]

17 hours ago, Cricketics said:

India recieves 8.9 million tourists a year compared to China which gets 58.9 million. 

The vast majority of them are from HK IIRC, their numbers are huge but not as high as they'd like to portray. China also does this in FDI & foreign trade, doubling their numbers with chitting 

[Cricketics]

2 hours ago, R!TTER said:

The vast majority of them are from HK IIRC, their numbers are huge but not as high as they'd like to portray. China also does this in FDI & foreign trade, doubling their numbers with chitting 

Well that way you can say India receives lot of NRI's too, infact most of the 8.9 are NRI's.  We can't hide behind that number. There is a massive difference again. 

[velu]

 

most indian small vendors see foreigners/tourists as walking ATM machines ..

 

 

[Cricketics]

53 minutes ago, velu said:

 

most indian small vendors see foreigners/tourists as walking ATM machines ..

 

 

I have seen many Kyle Rock videos.

 

Here is one more problem. The problem of "Gora Complex" among desis as a whole. People in India and that you can say about our neighbours too, and also China have this "Gora Complex". They like to put them on pedestal whilst. Chinese do the same, but a bit less than our people. People posing and taking pictures with "White" folks. M

 

Also mehmaan nawaazi is kept only to white folks. If we have someone come from Africa they might receive same treatment. 

 

 

[coffee_rules]

When I went to Gokarna, a holy place for Shivites in Karnataka , it has become a beach town with many foreign tourists. Mostly from  Russia and east Europeans who can’t afford places like Goa. They rent out cheap rooms for months , eat free food at the temple and spend time in the beach, not just single people, we saw man families living there. They are not allowed inside the temple, but food served outside for all devotees there are no restrictions. Quite a retreat for them. We stayed in a costly resort with pool , bar, buffet etc. and here are tourists from other countries living like hermits. Was quite embarrassed 

 

 

 

[velu]

24 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

When I went to Gokarna, a holy place for Shivites in Karnataka , it has become a beach town with many foreign tourists. Mostly from  Russia and east Europeans who can’t afford places like Goa. They rent out cheap rooms for months , eat free food at the temple and spend time in the beach, not just single people, we saw man families living there. They are not allowed inside the temple, but food served outside for all devotees there are no restrictions. Quite a retreat for them. We stayed in a costly resort with pool , bar, buffet etc. and here are tourists from other countries living like hermits. Was quite embarrassed 

 

 

 

potential mail order brides

 

[coffee_rules]

38 minutes ago, velu said:

potential mail order brides

 

I saw couple of whites selling bead art and what not. Quite a few junkies as well, you can try your luck with some mem there

[Mariyam]

@Cricketics

No doubt that we can pull in more tourists, but the number you put forth: 8.9 million looks suspect.

This article says that 6.9 million people visited the Taj Mahal last year. That makes 8.9 million seem very low.

 

Or maybe the 8.9 million doesn't include tourists from within India. That would be a huge segment/market too.

[Cricketics]

11 hours ago, Mariyam said:

@Cricketics

No doubt that we can pull in more tourists, but the number you put forth: 8.9 million looks suspect.

This article says that 6.9 million people visited the Taj Mahal last year. That makes 8.9 million seem very low.

 

Or maybe the 8.9 million doesn't include tourists from within India. That would be a huge segment/market too.

I am honestly not sure what the true number is approx but surely 6.9 million Agra visitors which you mentioned can’t be mostly foreign tourists. I expect Indians from all over India to make majority of that number.

I have heard many backpackers do not even go to Agra and and other areas, but instead prefer visiting areas like Varanasi, Himachal area or other places where there seem to be Yoga schools in India.

I am sure probably a few million would visit Taj Mahal as thats the most popular sight in India for tourists but young solo travelers look beyond touristy places like Taj Mahal, and like frequenting other areas to experience local life.