Six Things India Needs To Do To Attract More Tourists

The latest hype over Lakshadweep notwithstanding, there’s a lot that India needs to do to emerge as an attractive tourist destination. And not only for foreign tourists, but also the domestic travellers. 

From clean toilets and hygienic food to comfortable hotel rooms and tourist-friendly public behaviour, India has to get its act together. 

India has attractive destinations across all categories. But all of them suffer from many shortcomings. As a result, the country is not only losing out on foreign tourists, but also a growing number of middle-class tourists who are opting to fly abroad.

Here are six primary things that need to be done to get tourists to visit the various attractive destinations in the country:

Cleanliness: Admit it, India is dirty. Our public spaces are full of litter and a majority of Indians are yet to stop littering. Add to that the disgusting and widespread habit of spitting in public. 

Our public washrooms, even in upscale restaurants, are in poor state. Dirty, foul-smelling washrooms with dysfunctional fixtures will put off all tourists. 

Despite the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, a lot of our public spaces and other facilities still require lot of cleaning. The ‘Abhiyan’ needs to be intensified.  

More hotels with better and reasonably-priced rooms: All tourist destinations in India suffer from a shortage of decent hotels. And almost all hotels are grossly overpriced. A tourist will not pay double the amount for a room in India than what he pays for a room of the same standard in, say, Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesia. 

Improve infrastructure: Not just public infrastructure, even private tourist facilities like hotels, restaurants, shopping arcades, cultural centres and amusement parks need to improve and upgrade to international levels to get more tourists.

Even countries like Vietnam, which is an emerging tourist destination, has better roads, much better tourist infrastructure like buses, trains, coaches and taxis 

Offer tourists a varied experience: Most Indian tourist destinations offer limited experience to tourists. 

A seaside destination, for instance, will offer only some beach activities and limited watersports, if at all. 

Similarly, a hill station will only offer views of the mountains, some trekking or hiking trails and, at best, a bit of adventure sports like hang-gliding.  

But tourists can be offered much more. For instance, even though we have a very rich culture, it is showcased just perfunctorily to tourists.

Other countries showcase their cuisine which tourists enjoy at even roadside kiosks where a lot of attention is paid to hygiene. Not so in India. 

Don’t stare: It is bad manners to stare at people, and most Indians seem to be blissfully unaware of that. Indians across all classes and communities have the terrible habit of staring at visitors. That makes visitors acutely uncomfortable. 

This gets much worse at sea beaches where female tourists in swimwear are subjected to lewd ogling. 

Tourists have to feel safe and comfortable at all times. And their privacy needs to be respected. 

Atithi Devo Bhava: Tourists, both foreign and domestic, may encounter challenges such as being misled by touts, facing issues with cab drivers, receiving less-than-expected service at hotels.

Indian tourism industry and the people must aspire to enhance their hospitality and tourist-experience, seeking to surpass the standards set by many other countries.

India does not need to look far. It can learn from many countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and even the central Asian republics on how to make itself attractive to tourists. 

India hosts a mere fraction of tourists that these countries attract every year. Not because India is less attractive than these countries, but because they offer much more to tourists, and know how to treat their visitors.