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Amid the chaos, travel
industry rides a boom
By Raja M
MUMBAI - India has bagged hosting rights
to the fifth annual World Travel and Tourism
Council Meeting, leaving behind the United States
and China as also-rans in the race to host what
council president Jean-Claude Baumgarten called
the "Olympics of the travel industry".
Baumgarten declared that New Delhi
being chosen as the venue for the April 8-10 meeting
was appropriate as he expects India's tourism
growth, growing at nearly 9% for the next few
years, will be nearly double that of tourism
growth worldwide (4.5%).
Judy Slatyer,
chief executive officer of Lonely Planet
publications, enthusiastically agreed with
Baumgarten on India's growth potential in an
industry that is only now receiving greater
governmental attention, evident by the successful
"Incredible India" campaign.
"Time will
tell if current growth predictions are realized,
but India is certainly a destination to watch,"
Slatyer told Asia Times Online. She said India
has also featured in the results of Lonely
Planet's annual Travellers' Pulse Survey for two
years running. In the 2005 Travellers' Pulse
Survey conducted by the world's best-known travel
guide, India ranked fifth among destinations that
20,000 travelers said they would most like to
visit next. The survey was conducted before the
tsunami tragedy of last December, but Slatyer said
the result was "huge" in indicating India as a
popular destination.
"Lonely Planet Television has
also filmed an episode on Mumbai for our
television series, Lonely Planet Six
Degrees
," said Slatyer, "and it was one of the
most popular city episodes. The volume of feedback
and queries we get from travelers about India is
incredibly consistent."
India is slowly
but steadily realizing its potential in a global
travel industry estimated to have generated US$5.4
trillion in business in 2004, accounting for 10.4%
of total gross domestic product and 214,697,000
jobs.
According to a local travel-industry
journal, Express Travel and Tourism, India's
outbound traveler segment enjoyed impressive
growth to reach nearly 6 million in 2004, up from
4.8 million in 2003. Annual growth of 8.8% is
expected between 2004 and 2014. The number of
incoming tourists shot upward by about 25% and
crossed a record 3 million mark. India earned $4.3
billion from tourism between January and November
2004, up from a year-on-year $3.1 billion.
The journal said the tsunami tragedy
had little impact on tourist inflows. The expected
large-scale arrival cancellations did not happen,
and the 5 million tourist target is reachable.
Other indicators of India's
travel-industry boom are popping up. The initial public
offer (IPO) of Jet Airways, the largest domestic
airline, was subscribed 16.2 times and raised $435
million. The IPO for 17.27 million shares sold out
within 10 minutes of its opening on February 18.
Bankers involved in the deal said the success
showed investor faith in India's travel boom.
The hospitality industry, too,
is expectedly upbeat. Sarosh Khatib, director
of marketing of Grand Hyatt Mumbai, mentioned
how India has become a top-ranked destination in the
meetings and incentive travel segment. "Mumbai
itself has had a 30% growth year on year," Khatib
told ATol. "Other metros have seen similar growth.
There has been a greater inflow among business
travelers."
Two Lonely Planet editors
who recently visited India to research for a new
India guidebook measured India's tourism potential.
"The major advantage has to be the sheer diversity
of experiences offered to the traveler ... the
list is almost literally endless," said Janine
Eberle. "And you can do all these things for a
budget ranging anywhere from $10 a day to $500 a
day. There's something for everyone, and at every
price."
But a major disadvantage, Eberle
pointed out, is insufficient regulation of the
country's tourism industry. "There is a huge and
bamboozling number of shoddy operators and
established tourist scams that at low levels are
just annoying (but cumulatively get quite
frustrating!) - for example, the taxi driver who
drops you 500 meters from the entrance to the
airport into the hands of waiting 'porters' - but
at the extreme do ruin some people's holidays -
for example, the houseboat cruise that turns out
to be on a barely river-worthy rustbucket staffed
by a surly crew."
Sarina Singh, coordinating author of Lonely
Planet's forthcoming new-edition India guidebook (to be
released next September), says India's appeal as the
spiritual home to the world is translating into
greater tourist inflows. "Whether it's a
Buddhist's spiritual inquiry and meditation
retreat in Bodhgaya, or an invitation to attend
time-honored Hindu ceremonies in a family home,
India is one of the few places where the foreign
traveler can directly experience, not merely
observe, spirituality," said Singh. "Given the
West's growing interest in seeking authentic
spiritual sustenance in an increasingly
materialistic, cynical and politically volatile
world, travelers are likely to increasingly
descend upon India in search of 'enlightenment'."
Interestingly, Sarina Singh says tourists
have reported that one of India's greatest
disadvantages - the chaos - is turning out to be a
great attraction for tourists. Travelers, tied up
in their clockwork routines at home, are enjoying
being thrown into the uncertainties of life. "They
have relayed that going 'back to basics'
ultimately brings them closer to people living at
the grassroots level," Singh remarked. "And it's
often at this level where they discover simple
truths about life - truths that can make them
reassess their own lives." It's this "incredible"
selling point from which India's tourism tribe is
beginning to reap a rich harvest.
Raja M is an independent writer
based in Mumbai, India.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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