Outbound tourist traffic from India poised to surpass inbound traffic

Singapore: The just-concluded ITB Asia 2009 in Singapore, Asia's largest tourism fair, provided pointers suggesting that outbound tourism traffic from India would surpass the inbound traffic.
"If it is not already happening, outbound traffic from India will surpass its inbound traffic. With the growing prosperity of middle-class Indians, more and more of them are venturing into far-flung destinations such as Switzerland
, UK and the USA in the West, and Japan, Singapore and other destinations in the East.
"On the other hand, more and more foreign tourists are getting turned off by the outrageously priced hotel rooms in India, the rampant corruption in every aspect of life in India, the pollution, noise and fear of terrorism," said Juergen Matthiesen, a Swiss tourism expert based near Basel.
Hotel prices in India, many experts said, are "completely unrealistic" and will hit the general tourism flow to a country that, otherwise, offers many cultural and historic attractions and a diverse landscape. India's hotel prices compare unfavourably even with top destinations such as the US and Britain, not to mention other destinations such as Thailand, Singapore or Malaysia.
Some experts were privately saying that the "Incredible India" campaign -- huge "Incredible India" billboards have been mounted in subway stations in Singapore or at other strategic locations in Frankfurt, London or New York -- raised expectations of tourists visiting India, who came back with poor impressions of the country, mainly because of the very high hotel room prices.
27/10/09 IANS/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2009