Incredible India

Many Indians, battling quotidian urban realities, would be surprised at foreign tourists8217; vote of confidence 8212; between 2003 and now India has climbed from being the tenth to the fourth most desirable travel destination in what is considered a fairly authoritative global survey. If surveys are not to be taken seriously, there is hard data, too. Tourism arrival figures are increasing every year. The travel industry moans about hotel shortages, not poor bookings. Some good things are obviously happening, over and above the 8216;Incredible India8217; campaign. Some time during the NDA8217;s term tourism began to receive the attention it always deserved. It stayed that way during the NDA8217;s term and has continued with the UPA. Tourism is no longer an obscure, low profile ministry where lowly party hacks find consolation. Take the current incumbent, Ambika Soni, whose proximity to the Congress chief demanded her debut in government didn8217;t start with, say, youth affairs or non-conventional energy.

Of course, overall strategy errors still remain despite the non-conventional ministerial energy spent on tourism over the last four-five years. Budget hotels that are not dingy holes in the wall are in severe short supply. One reason is that the whole process of clearance to build hotels remains a bureaucratic mess; note in this context the World Bank8217;s assessment of India as a complicated place to do business in. Some of the other reasons include major states 8212; for example, MP 8212; being blind to their enormous tourism potential, the slow pace of highway/roads improvement or unimaginative civil aviation policy that doesn8217;t encourage a small airlines/small airports combination.

But the fact still remains that some imaginative official thinking produced a noticeable transformation in an area that had never been India8217;s strong point. There8217;s a striking lesson here for governments: it doesn8217;t take much to make a great beginning. India can move dramatically up, say, in the World Bank8217;s report card on business environment by changing a few rules and procedures. India is incredible because this hasn8217;t happened so far.