How to get more tourists to Incredible India

India received 7.2 million foreign tourists in the first 10 months of 2023, a big step up from 4.6 million in the same period in 2022. The last two months, for which data is not yet available, are peak tourist months, so the full year total could surpass the 10.9 million who visited India in 2019 before the pandemic disrupted international travel.

The return of tourists, though welcome, should not detract from the fact that India does not attract as many as it should. How do we come to this conclusion? A good starting point is to compare India with other tourist destinations in Asia, the logic being that given the post pandemic rise in health concerns and geopolitical tensions, more travellers prefer frequent short haul trips to nearby locations.

The numbers are sobering: in 2019, Thailand and Japan received about twice as many visitors as India, Vietnam had nearly the same number, and China welcomed 65 million tourists. One can argue that India offers a unique experience vastly different from the beaches of Phuket or the war memorials of Vietnam.

Indeed, India has 42 cultural and natural properties identified as Unesco World Heritage Sites, the sixth most in the world. But a comparison with other top countries on the list is disappointing, too: Mexico and the UK, for instance, draw in far more visitors than India. What needs fixing? For a tourist destination to be attractive, it should meet some basic requirements.

These include safety (not being robbed, assaulted, murdered); freedom from harassment (from touts, beggars, hustlers); cleanliness (around roads, tourist attractions, eating places); sanitation (clean and safe toilets in public places); connectivity (transport links and digital connectivity); and a choice of hotels and restaurants.

Extras like digital payments and price competitiveness make a location more desirable, but are not necessarily deal breakers. India’s performance on these core expectations is not great. That may explain why it slipped from 46th to 54th place between 2019 and 2021 on the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index.

A look at some of the index components shows what tourists like and don’t like about India. Tourists appreciate the country’s natural and cultural resources. They also give a thumbs up to its airports, roads and ports. But India was ranked very low on safety, hygiene, and tourist infrastructure such as accommodation and car rentals.

The conclusion: pull factors are in place, but the overall tourist experience can be better. Why it matters The travel, tourism and hospitality sectors collectively employ thousands of workers who may lack formal degrees but have skills related to their specific roles in the tourist ecosystem. According to the tourism ministry, in 2019 20, the direct contribution of tourism to GDP was 2.7%, and overall contribution was 5.2%.

The industry employed over 34 million directly, and nearly 80 million across related industries. Also, foreign tourists bring in foreign exchange, though the industry is not commonly viewed as a dollar generator. In 2022 23, tourism earned $21.6 billion of foreign exchange. To put that in perspective, this was higher than the $19.8 billion from pharma exports and close to the $21.4 billion generated by exports of organic chemicals.

Tourism also plays a key role in propping up city economies. More than half of foreign tourists come via Delhi or Mumbai, which are among the top 10 in the world in terms of direct tourism employment: Delhi at fifth, with over a million jobs, and Mumbai at 10th, with 354,000, as of 2019, as per the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Market the package India will need to package and market its astonishing array of tourist experiences smartly. To begin with, the tourist base can be widened beyond the traditional source countries, namely, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Bangladesh. The share of tourists from southeast Asia can be increased, given our cultural and geographical proximity with that region.

Countries compete fiercely for the tourist dollar on multiple fronts: India will need to do the same. A few improvements to the enabling environment and some tweaks to the marketing strategy are all we need to showcase India’s beauty to the world..