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However, this has changed. India is now making rapid economic strides. But in addition to fixing the country's infrastructure, the other thing that needs fixing is the urban areas, which need to be cleaned up.
If you want tourists with pockets bulging with dollars, you have to make their trip worthwhile. India has a history and culture to rival any tourist destination in the world; hence tourists would wish to see and experience it. One way to get them in large numbers is to offer a clean environment, decent tourist infrastructure, the best of food and lodging and a major marketing effort.
Food and lodging and tourist infrastructure is easier to fix, because private interests will sense profits and will work on it. It is the clean-up of the city environment which is hardest to accomplish. This not only requires public money, which is harder to come by, but also changes in people's habits. This has never been a high priority in the general living standards of Indians.
Slum colonies are teeming with millions. They are being regularized to give the illegal occupiers of public land a break. This leads to bigger colonies next door, because it is easier to become an illegal occupant and get the benefit of ownership 20 years down the road.
This pattern of illegal occupation followed by becoming a regular colony has no end in sight. This arrangement has direct and indirect political support. Leaders need votes and these colonies are vote banks. This behavior, together with the colonies, needs to be cleaned up. A few of these slums need to be relocated to better locations. Others need to be physically cleaned up of dirt and debris.
These actions are also applicable to posh and better located colonies. There is always a bit of encroachment on public land by the rich and affluent. They are also willing to leave construction debris or plain household refuse just a few steps away from their property in hopes the municipal system will take it away.
The municipal system is under-funded because nobody pays a fair share of property taxes. Whatever taxes are collected, some of the funds disappear into the pockets of officials and politicians. The little remaining is used to provide benefits to the slum colonies. In this way neither the poor nor the rich get the benefit of the cleaner environment.
The benefits of tourists spending hard currency are great. It is a high margin, high return business. Countries like Egypt, all the Caribbean countries and most European countries earn a significant component of their GDP through tourism. France is in the lead. It receives roughly 75 million tourists a year, followed by Spain, the United States, China and Italy.
An average tourist spends about US$150 a day over a two-week period. In Europe -- by far the largest beneficiary of the tourist trade -- they spend about US$350 billion. In Asia, with the opening of China in the last 20 years, tourist arrivals and money spent by them have multiplied several fold. Now China is the fourth most widely traveled destination, with 35 million arrivals in 2006. The forthcoming Olympics will boost it further.
An important reason that tourists make Europe or China or Egypt or even Vietnam their destination is that the tourist infrastructure in these places has been expanded and upgraded. Generally these destinations present a cleaner environment. Not much has been done in India to clean up the urban areas. There are pockets in Indian cities that may be attractive to tourists. But where slums cohabit with tourist hot spots, visitors are turned off. They never wish to return and they have nothing pleasant to tell others about their trip. Word of mouth is key to future visits.
The number of international tourists that arrived in India in 2006 was about 4 million. This is minuscule compared to those who went to Europe, and about one-tenth the number of tourists that arrived in China. India earned about US$6 billion in foreign exchange. Compare this to US$55 billion, which the Chinese earned. It is all hard currency, which finances development.
In these unpleasant statistics there is at least the heartening news that the year-on-year number of arrivals in India has increased to a double-digit figure. This is a healthy trend, but to achieve respectable earnings through the tourist trade, India has to do a lot more.
First, as national infrastructure is being built, tourist infrastructure should be upgraded concurrently. That should include increased hotel rooms, excellent dining facilities, good transport to and from places of interest and exquisite shopping facilities.
Second, the slums should be cleaned up and cleanliness should be considered a virtue. Whatever slums are beyond repair should be relocated. All unsightly objects should be fixed or demolished. Third, the marketing of India should be upgraded from its current low-key "Incredible India" slogan to "Come to India, we will take good care of you!" This would have greater appeal in the West.
Fourth, one outstanding area that is under-exploited and should be part of India's marketing effort is the virtue of spirituality. The West is beginning to pay attention to this Indian gift to the world. It was in India five millennia ago that man made the distinction between the eternal and the perishable. Later he discovered within himself the germ of the eternal. This epoch-making discovery of the human mind has made India the home of spirituality. This aspect is respected worldwide and would bring a fair number of tourists willing to share in a spiritual experience.
Fifth, greater attention should be paid to offering value for money charged. If tourists are fleeced of their money, they will not return and will not recommend others to go to India.
There is also the small matter of persuading unwilling and unfriendly media reporters and newscasters in the West not to write only bad news about India. They cannot help it. They have made up their mind and can see nothing good in the new India. These same reporters elsewhere, such as China, see only good news and ignore the fact that there is no less poverty there. This unpleasant publicity turns people off. There are no magic bullets to deal with this issue except by encouraging news organizations to be objective.
It is very important that India do its utmost to clean up and make itself attractive enough for tourists to visit. In addition, private investment is needed to upgrade the tourist infrastructure. Indian cities should look like well cared-for urban centers, where rich and poor cohabit in a clean environment. It may take a decade to complete this task, but it is an essential task before significant tourist traffic can be generated. Current trends in the tourist trade are encouraging but not good enough, considering India's potential.
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(Hari Sud is a retired vice president of C-I-L Inc., a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. A graduate of Punjab University and the University of Missouri, he has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. ©Copyright Hari Sud.)
