According to available data on the Internet, UK earns 752 Million Pound Sterling every year from Visitors who come from India. In terms of Indian Rupees, that is close to 7100 Crores, a shade lesser than One Billion US Dollars (with INR at 83, the value of Rupee has fallen).
On the other hand, the total earning in India of all tourists put together, again from available data on the Internet, is around 200,000 Crores (Two Lakh Crores).
The total income from Tourism as clocked by UK is 2,20,94,61,71,12,100 Indian Rupees (234 Billion Pound Sterling). That is Twenty Two Lakh Crores! The Tourist income of UK is around 10 times that of a five thousand year old civilization.
And UK is just a small island. Where as India is a vast country with a history spanning thousands of years.
Why is it that India has such a poor tourism income? Are we not tourist friendly at all. We don’t value our own heritage and don’t value those who come to visit us.
Signage, that makes the life of a visitor easier, is all in the local language of the state. In Punjab you’ll find most bus routes and names of places painted in Punjabi script (some call it Gurmukhi). In Tamil Nadu, you’ll find all signage in Tamil and so on.
There are hardly any facilities at our tourist places that are maintained in working conditions for the use of visitors both local and international.
We also have a tendency to harass the foreign visitor and intrude on their personal space. We think that it is our birthright that they allow us to be photographed with them. We gawk at them unabashedly and will not leave them alone even when they don’t want our presence. We intrude very easily.
India has tremendous tourism potential. It is perhaps the only country in the world that has got it all, from the tropical climate to the cold climate up north. We have a history that is almost the history of human evolution and it is all cast in stone. Yet, with there being hardly any focus on cashing this history, we let an opportunity escape by us.
