Indian tourism riding post 9-11 boom

CALCUTTA, India, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Destination India seems to be the flavor of the season for holiday seekers globally this December. According to the Indian ministry of tourism, India is expected to see maximum inflow of tourists this month since the post 9/11 global tourism slump as travel agents around the world have started putting out "tickets sold out notices" for holiday seekers planning to spend a warm Christmas in India

Recently, Vancouver-based Uniglobe was the first to put out "India is sold out for the season" notices in its 26 offices around the world, while others, like California-based Geographic Expeditions and India-based Great India Tours said that "they are packed until January."

"The great Indian Holiday is sold out this season," said an official from the tourism ministry even as tourism hot spots in other neighboring Asian countries continue to decline. While India is witnessing a 20 percent growth of inbound tourists since October over the previous year, reports suggest that Singapore's tourism is declining by 18 percent; Thailand's by 22 percent and Malaysia's by 18 percent.

And, it is not only a rush of inbound travelers. For the country's outbound tourist traffic, the struggle for getting a ticket out is equally hard. For this segment, perhaps the winter of 2003 has never been so good since the early 1990s say industry sources. "With global recession seeming to have waned decisively, Indian economy growing at around 7 percent per annum and rise in disposable incomes of Indians, an increasing number of people are going on holiday trips within the country and abroad resulting in the tourism industry growing wings," said a spokesperson of Great India Tour.

"Tourism is no more being seen as the rich man's past time," said M Narayanan, managing director of the state-owned Tourism Finance Corp of India "An increasing number of ordinary people are now going on holiday tours, giving a fillip to the industry's growth."

Keenly aware of the unfolding boom in the industry, the government too is lending a hand to the growth of the industry and place India on top of the world tourism map. "We are aggressively trying to sell the Brand India," said Amitabh Kant of the tourism ministry. In the budget for 2003-04, the government had extended infrastructure status to tourism, thus opening the doors to cheap, long-term funds to help finance tourism infrastructure. "But you will see a lot more efforts in the next few months," added Kant, "most of which I can't discuss just yet."

"Besides", says Narayanan of Tourism Finance Corp, "we have also started promoting India as a destination by offering various categories of tourism." These include history tourism, pilgrimage tourism, adventure tourism, and beach tourism. "India, incidentally, has the longest coastline in the East," he said.

But a sudden wish of global holiday seekers to spend a warm Christmas or the recent promotional efforts of the country's tourism industry may not be the only reason that is attracting inbound travelers in hordes. "I think it is important to recognize that the country is also emerging as an increasingly preferred destination for healthcare," said Rathi Vinay Jha, secretary, ministry of tourism. "We have been promoting health tourism as one of our niche tourism products. Although traditionally Ayurveda was there, but healthcare has also gained lot of ground with India offering better facilities at a reasonable cost." Hence, according to Jha, many of them have started coming to India for dual purpose; spending a holiday and getting treated.

Indeed, healthcare tourism is tipped to be the next big-buck business for the country's tourism sector, thanks to the cost advantage that it provides along with healthcare facilities that have become comparable to global standards.

Worldwide, healthcare is said to be a $3 trillion industry, and India, over the years, has finally emerged as a destination to be in a position to tap the top-end segment by highlighting its facilities and services, and exploiting the brand equity of leading Indian healthcare professionals across the globe.

"India has tremendous potential to become a healthcare destination," said Pratap Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospital, which with its numerous hospitals across the country attracts the maximum number of inbound healthcare travelers.

According to the healthcare industry, low costs of treatment in India are definitely one of the biggest attractions. "The cost in India is one-fourth to one-fifth of the cost in the West," says Vishal Bali of Wockhardt Hospital & Heart Institute, Bangalore, "and depending on the types of procedures, patients can benefit by 30 percent to 50 percent in tertiary care procedures."