Trouble over 'Incredible India'

Even as the government is thinking of giving a makeover to the ''Incredible India campaign'' as a part of its measure to revamp India’s image as a safe tourist place, the stakeholders including the tourism industry are split over the move.

The revamped Incredible India campaign envisages live comments of overseas visitors about India being a safe destination even after the terrorist attacks.

The amount of money spent on such campaigns should rather be spent on beefing up the security of tourists spots, says Sachin Bhatia, CEO, Makemytrip. "People believe in the newspaper reports that are negative all across the world about India rather than believing in paid ad campaigns” Bhatia added. "We should instead have tourist police at all major tourist destination to boost the sense of security.''

India’s image as a tourist destination has been severely dented after the Mumbai terror attacks that left 20 foreigners dead.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore and Australia have issued advisory to their citizens, warning them against traveling to India.

“Tourists do not get even 20 per cent of what is shown in our Incredible India campaign.The foreigners are not fools that they will believe the promos projecting India as a safe destination.” said an industry analyst who tracks the Hotel business in India. “The money should rather be spent on some action on ground so that the tourists actually feel secure and tell about this to their fellows on going back” he added.

Still, others feel that India should now step up its campaign agressively following other nation's example. “We should market India more aggressively now. Terror attacks have taken place in London, New york and Madrid. But the governments of these countries got more aggressive in promoting themselves as a safer place.” Richa Goyal Sikri, director- group business development, STIC Travel group said

The tourism industry has been badly impacted due to the economic downturn. Forex earnings from tourism fell 12.5 per cent to $1,005 million in November, the first significant decline in many years.Foreign tourist arrivals have fallen by 2.1 per cent in November to 5.21 lakh. according to government data.

Some others, however, are unsure about the effect on the makeover. “At present not much can be said if such the move will be positive for the industry as the key concern of travelers is not merely attractive holiday packages. Safety and security is also important,” said , Ashwin Damera, Founder & CEO, Travelguru.