The reality is that India probably has more to offer foreign tourists than almost any other country, thanks to its size, its antiquity and its great cultural diversity, including its cuisine, and its rich collection of monuments built during different centuries.

The big challenge is not marketing India’s tourism delights, but preparing local people and infrastructure so that the visitor experience is one of pleasure rather than regret.

This requires challenging some deeply ingrained cultural norms, stereotypes and behavioral patterns, and is a far more demanding task than building roads, housing, airports and civic amenities. . But if India succeeds in meeting these challenges, the reward would be remarkable.

The country’s tourism potential is such that we would not only gain a greater share of the global tourism revenue of $1.5 trillion (UN Tourism 2023 figure), but also expand the global pie.

Visiting tourists must be able to take safety and security for granted. It means law and order first and foremost, but it goes well beyond that.

Cultural stereotypes need to disappear, which encourage a large number of Indian men to view women not only as objects of desire, to be ogled, but also as prey, if not in the company of men, and not just for their own sake. tourism.

Centuries of colonial rule by Europeans ingrained racial prejudice in the Indian psyche, leading many Indians to mock light-skinned visitors while looking down on others. This is largely contrary to India’s growth in a globalized world, not just the diversity of tourists attracted to India.

The wide variety of tastes and textures that Indian cuisine can offer visitors is potentially a tourism force multiplier, provided it can be ingested without getting sick. This requires a step change in hygiene levels that runs the gamut from raw materials, storage and transportation to the dishes served.

The safety of visitors also depends on the general conditions of the country. However, our road fatality data makes India an outlier when it comes to dangerous traffic. As with air pollution in the National Capital Region, this problem is proving exceedingly stubborn.

Additionally, if a visitor needs medical help, the health facility she visits should offer her more comfort than horror. Community flare-ups must of course disappear completely.

India has a lot to offer, from natural beauty, exotic flora, fauna, adventure and heavenly beaches to a living testimony of the evolution of spirituality in different faiths over time; from our ancient and medieval history to the architectural wonders of the past and present; sculptures that combine the erotic and the divine with the wonder of our anthropological variety; and vestiges of various colonial regimes (French, Dutch, Portuguese and English) with varied styles of music and dance, not to mention Bollywood.

Providing foreign tourists with the enriching experience they deserve would require qualified guides, audio resources, attractive websites and widespread hospitality services. All of this can create thousands of jobs at different skill levels. Indeed, tourism is the largest employer in the world as a sector.

Unfortunately, India is not among the ten most visited countries in the world. This must change. The Center aims to attract 100 million annual visitors by 2047, more than 10 times last year’s figure. Achieving this would do us a lot of good. Let’s make the effort.