Langza- Spiti, Himachal Pradesh
Finally I saw once sensible and balanced piece about Indian tourism and the Incredible India campaign. I mean who can quarrel with the concept, many parts of India are incredibly beautiful.
As CII and Ministry of Tourism celebrate ‘Incredible India@60’ in the Big Apple, leading global communication services player WPP’s Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said: “If people don’t live the brand promise… It’s dead. We can advertise a bad product (only) once.” India’s Tourism Ministry Joint Secretary Amitabh Kant agreed that branding was fine, but welcoming tourists with garbage and filth will ensure the initiative never takes off.In short, India requires its creaking infrastructure to be set right for the experience to change, experts felt. New Delhi has estimated that it needs USD 492 billion to revamp urban and rural infrastructure, including roads, ports, airports and power sector, besides water and sanitation.
It is beautiful yes, but sadly I won’t say very safe. Did u hear what happened to the Jap women in Agra? I toured most of Western Europe on my own sometimes at the wee hours of night – and have never felt unsafe. In India, I feel unsafe even in broad day light sometimes in cities like Delhi. Tourists get ripped off by guides, transportation in places are terrible…Attitudes need to chage – be it towards cleanliness, efficiency, honesty.
I hate to admit this, but its true. We might package India to people to come visit, but it would take a brave soul to take a vacation to travel to India.Smita summarised it aptly – attitudes need to change. But then that’s a biggie…will take a while.
Smita, how I agree with you. Safety for women in India is a different altogether. Amreekandesi, welcome to my blog. India does have a tough destination image and I guess rightly so!
I am reminded of the lyrics of a Michael Jackson song.”I’m Starting With The Man In The MirrorI’m Asking Him To Change His Ways…”:)
I completely agree with both your points – there are so many places in our country that are incredibly beautiful. But we do not care about preserving the beauty. Garbage and filth are a common site not just in the populated parts, but any site that becomes a frequented destination is spoilt too. We dont have a waste management system, we are not even conscious about keeping our surroundings clean.
I completely agree with Smita ..when we went to europe recently, there was not a piece of paper flung on the road and here in India, unfortunately, educated people throw cigarettes, chips packets on roads and picnic spots ..also information is available everywhere , even a small town will have digital signboards telling you which train is arriving at which platform ..if such infrastructure and technology is available, one can avoid accidents like the one that happenned at Mughalsarai