Foreign tourists are swarming like locusts on India but the country’s travel and tourism industry which can’t hold a candle to even Morocco and Mexico, has miles to go.
Even Indian tourism minister K. J. Alphons asked tour operators at their recent conference why France attracted more (82.6 million) globe-trotters than India (8.9 m) in 2016 and told them to straighten up and fly right.
True, the number of overseas visitors has registered a spectacular growth of 10.7 per cent--rising from 8 million in 2015 to 8.9 million in 2016--and the country now ranks 24th in the world, but the frantic footfalls include six million non-resident Indians (NRIs), not to mention 200,000 patients and countless students and businessmen who also wing in for special purposes and not just for grins and giggles.
Leisure traffic
Surprisingly, a majority of the footloose holidayers who came to explore....
