Tourists Still Coming to India but at Slower Pace

Manpreet Romana/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Tourists walking past Indian policemen near the Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi on Sept. 19, 2010.

As the tourism industry in India attempts to shore up its image internationally, a series of high-profile attacks on women since December has raised concerns about the safety of foreign tourists in India. However, whether or not overseas tourism in India has actually slowed down in response depends on whom you ask.

“With national and international media giving extensive coverage to the incidents, Incredible India’s image is certainly taking a hit,” said Surinder Singh Sodhi, senior vice president at Thomas Cook India.

India’s tourism department introduced several new initiatives in 2012 aimed at improving India’s image overseas and boosting tourism. In addition to its current advertising campaign called “Incredible India,” India began an international campaign in November called “Find What You Seek,” which has received international awards. The ministry has also crafted a domestic campaign called “Go Beyond” to encourage tourism in lesser-known destinations in India.

However, the gang rape and subsequent death of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi led the embassies of the United States and Britain to issue advisories to their citizens to avoid certain neighborhoods in New Delhi where demonstrations were being held. Then in March, a group of men raped a 39-year-old Swiss tourist in Madhya Pradesh. Four days later, a 25-year-old British tourist jumped off the balcony of her hotel room in Agra after the hotel’s owner allegedly forced his way into her room.

The most recent sexual assault of a foreign tourist occurred on June 4, when a 30-year-old American tourist was gang-raped in the northern resort town of Manali. On Friday, three suspects were sent to judicial custody for 14 days as the investigation continues, the Himachal Pradesh Police said.

Sam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Foreign tourists at the Adalaj step-well in Gandhinagar district, Gujarat, on Nov. 18, 2012.

“At the moment we are being seen as an unsafe destination for women,” said Arun Varma, the chief executive of Prime Travels, a tour operator that arranges trips to India, with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, New York and London. Mr. Varma said that several of his clients planning to visit India had voiced safety concerns and a few others had canceled trips.

A survey of 1,200 tour operators released March 31 by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India showed that the number of foreign tourists visiting India had fallen 25 percent since December 2012, with a 35 percent drop among female travelers.

Nearly 72 percent of the tour operators surveyed said that they had seen a number of cancellations from clients, especially from female tourists. D.S. Rawat, the secretary general of the business group, said that there was a possibility that the recent reports of rape would discourage foreign tourists from visiting India in the long term.

However, on April 3, the minister of state for tourism, K. Chiranjeevi, disputed this claim, pointing to data that showed foreign tourist arrivals in India rose in January and February from the same period in 2012. “There has been some speculation in the media about the state of Indian tourism because of some extremely unfortunate events,” said Mr. Chiranjeevi in a statement.

According to data compiled by India’s Ministry of Tourism, the months of January and February 2013 saw 1.38 million foreign tourist arrivals, representing a growth of 2.1 percent over the same period last year. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism during that period were $3.8 billion, or an 11.4 percent increase over the same duration in the previous year.

Subhash Goyal, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, also said that the tourism industry had seen growth from January to March, adding that members of his association had not seen a single cancellation because of safety concerns.

On April 9, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry released yet another survey of the Indian tourism sector, this one showing 83 percent of the respondents, said that India was “totally safe” for foreign travelers.

Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency Irish nationals walking near the Gateway of India monument (not seen in the picture) in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Thursday.

“Out of the 6.4 million foreign tourists who visited India in 2012, there have been one or two incidents,” said Mr. Goyal. “This can happen anywhere in the world, and this problem does exist in every country.”

What the rising numbers this year don’t reveal is how the growth in tourism has slowed in India compared to previous years.

“While there has been no decline in absolute numbers, there is a decline in terms of the rate of growth,” said R.K. Bhatnagar, additional director general of market research at the Ministry of Tourism.

Foreign tourist arrivals over the January-February period in 2013 may have risen at an annual rate of 2.1 percent, he said, but tourist arrivals over January and February 2012 increased 8.7 percent from the same period in 2011.

The full-year growth rate of foreign tourist arrivals has also slowed over the past few years, from 11.8 percent in 2010 and 9.2 percent in 2011 to 5.4 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, India receives a small share of international tourism, with only 0.6 percent of international tourist arrivals and 1.6 percent of international tourism receipts, the Ministry of Tourism said in March.

India’s tourism minister said that the department has a goal of doubling the international tourism arrivals by the year 2016, using 2011, when India had 6.31 million tourists, as the base. For India to reach that target, it would have to see an increase of 97 percent over the next four years - a difficult task in light of recent events and trends.