Tourists stay away from 'Incredible India'

Tour operators say India is seen as a "hardship destination" even as hotels in major cities charge up to $400 a night. "If you land at the airport and if it takes you an hour-and-a-half to get your bags and then you have to fight in a taxi queue, that's not really the kind of experience you want as a customer," Shringi of Yatra.com said.

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By Matthias Williams

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It's billed as one of the world's most luxurious and romantic train journeys. An old-world tour of India's palaces and lakes, all the way to the Taj Mahal.

Despite great expectations when it was launched in January, the Royal Rajasthan on Wheels train, with $2,000 suites and gourmet dining cars, has at times been left languishing in the rail yards as the global economic crisis and the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks put the brakes on India's tourist boom.

"If you don't have guests, what's the point of running the train?" asked Supinder Singh, the president of Palace Tours.

India has seen its tourist arrivals drop in recent months for the first time since 2002 when it launched its hugely successful "Incredible India" campaign that enticed millions of well-heeled tourists from around the world to explore the wonders of India.

Winter is peak season, but this year business has been slow and hotels are struggling to fill empty rooms due to mass cancellations by foreign tourists. All sectors have been hit, from pricey tours of Rajasthan, to budget beach holidays in Goa.

When Palace Tours launched the Royal Rajasthan on Wheels in January it had high hopes the $8 million train would be inundated with bookings by wealthy tourists seeking to explore India in the comfort of a five-star train compartment, with wireless Internet, a spa and silver-service dining on demand.

Instead, the Royal Rajasthan on Wheels has either been relegated to the rail yards due to lack of passengers or plied the journey through Rajasthan to the Taj Mahal in Agra, with only a handful of the possible 82 visitors it can carry.

"I think there are more staff than us," said Amrit Dhaliwal, a tourist who traveled on the near empty train this month with her husband.

The American couple were among 10 passengers who embarked on the trip from New Delhi, welcomed by traditional musicians sitting on cushions and playing flutes and drums.

"We didn't realize it would have so few people on it. It would have been nice to have had more people," said Amrit's husband Kulwant.

Several of the visitors on the train were upgraded from the less lavish Palace on Wheels, a sister train that is operating at about 60 percent capacity instead of its usual 100 percent.

Tourism contributes more than 6 percent to India's GDP of $1 trillion, and employs 53 million people directly or indirectly. Foreign tourist arrivals to India dropped 12 percent to 522,000 in December, compared to 596,560 in the same month in 2007.

The "Incredible India" advertisement campaign targets a very small segment of the high-end tourism market of the Western countries. To call a spade a spade, "sex sells," which is the reason for the success of the sex tourism destinations of South East Asia, for example. What is needed is a campaign aimed at the more economy class tourists. For that first India's tourism infra-structure would have to include budget class accomodations also, among other things, in my view!

The remedy must start at the airport itself..from the attitude of the Immigration officer whose behavior and manners are sometimes terrible..that's the first impression of India which the tourist gets on landing..an uncouth immigration official who want to read his passport from cover to cover as if it is harry potter novel..wasting time...then there is the customs officials and their behavior..and so on...all this right at the airport..

India is a dysfunctional government..over regulated and under governed.

I think people like yourself should form NGO's to tackle issues one by one! It is futile to expect proper behaviour from governments composed of politicians, who are there for their own glorification. Public officials are so secure in their jobs that they do not feel the need to be courteous. So The buck stops on the "common man," including yourself! I wish you all the best, since your concern is a positive sign!