Tourism in India – wooing foreign tourists with atithi devo bhavo

Long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined the phrase of Swatchh Bharat, the Bollywood screen idol Amir Khan had launched another version of a similar theme – it was about tourism. He had been chosen to become the brand ambassador of Indian tourism and the face of Incredible India with his Atithhi Devo Bhava.
This is a Sanskrit phrase which means – consider the guest as god.
The campaign focused on how to make the tourists feel at home in India and highlighted innumerable instances of what foreigners do not approve of - one of these campaigns showed busload of people moving alongside a car in which tourists are traveling. Suddenly, someone from the bus throws a banana peel out of the window and it lands in the tourist vehicle.
The campaign was the brain child of the Union Ministry of Tourism in 2002 because with the large variety of places of tourism available, tourists flock to India but, the local culture and infrastructure being what it is, many of them go away unhappy, at times disappointed. That is not good for tourism. Therefore, the ministry decided to approach the industry with professionalism and roped in agencies to work out how best to present the country – thus emerged the Incredible India campaign. It was closely inked with the message – atithi devo bhava.
Whether the strategies have paid dividends or not can be gauged from the fact that Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the October 2014 was 6.56 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.98 lakh during the month of October 2013 and 5.56 lakh in October 2012. The statistics reveal that there has been a growth of 9.6% in October 2014 over October 2013 as compared to a growth of 7.5% registered in October 2013 over October 2012. India has a multitude of caves, ancient monuments, wildlife reserves, and scenic beauty spots that tourists find attractive. But, at many places, the infrastructure like communication and accommodation are not up to the mark. Then there are problems of language and unscrupulous elements are always ready to pounce on unsuspecting tourists and take undue advantage of this.
Kerala has been identified as ‘God’s own country’. Rajasthan is the land of deserts, palaces and forts. Assam is wildlife territory in the national reserves of Kaziranga. Temples, churches and other places of worship abound from the North to the South. And then there are tourisms of other kinds like medical tourism – this has added impetus to tourist arrivals in India.
In order to attract tourists and ensure that they keep coming, it is necessary to remove the hurdles and ensure that the foreigners take back pleasant memories – as a popular saying goes: ‘if you are satisfied, tell others; if not, tell us.’ That is the bottom line for marketing any good and is valid for tourism, because it is just like any other product. It has to be borne in mind that the well-being of tourists is everybody’s business – remember the banana peel incident.