Globally, it ranked 21st, with estimated earnings of US$8.9 billion (RM30 billion) in 2006. It rose to US$12 billion last year. But this is peanuts compared with the No. 1, the United States' US$85 billion, or even fifth-ranking China's US$33 billion.
But then, following the Indian philosophical tradition, everything must be seen in relative terms. In this case, it would be the post-1991 period, when the world opened up and India itself opened up with its economic reforms.
The revenue from international tourism rose from US$2.6 billion in 1995 to US$3.6 billion in 2000, US$6.2 billion in 2004 and US$7.5 billion in 2005.
This makes a 15 to 20 per cent target achievable.
The last financial year, when more than five million tourists arrived, was the fourth running that India's growth in arrivals picked up pace, with an increase of 13 per cent from 2005 to 20006, according to governmental data. India expected to host six million tourists last year and 10 million by 2010.
The "Incredible India!" promotional campaign won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Gold Award last year.
With better tourist infrastructure, the government could capitalise on the country earning the coveted world No. 1 travel destination ranking in the latest Conde Nast Traveller UK awards.
India jumped ahead of Italy, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand among the world's top five most-preferred tourist destinations from fourth a year earlier and 10th in 2004.
A Lonely Planet survey of 167 countries also ranks India among the world's top five most popular destinations.
It is really looking up, what with conference tourism, beach tourism, health/medical tourism, mountaineering tourism, pilgrimage tourism and, since the Liz Hurley-Arun Nayar wedding, even marriage tourism contributing to the slow but steady pace of growth.
The flow is increasingly two-way, with countries far-off like Australia and Ireland and near like Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong targeting the fast-growing market of the Indians travelling as never before.
There are more and more flights, and they are not merely carrying Indian workers and NRIs (non-resident Indians) but real, splurging tourists.
Ditto domestic tourism. Look at the five-star luxury hotels across India: restaurant clientele and room occupancy have more Indians with buying power than ever before.
For several years, India had been singing Atithi Devo Bhava (A guest is like God) but few were willing to play God.
When India crossed the one million tourist mark, it was celebrated as a major achievement, amid the realisation that a tiny Hong Kong was doing much better.
India has travelled a long distance since then. Or has it?
Much as it seeks atithi, domestic and foreign, it lacks a tourism culture. An average Indian still views a splurging tourist as one indulging in something obscene.
The shopkeepers, guides, transporters and hoteliers think a rich tourist is someone to be fleeced.
And if he is ill-clad, simple, on a shoestring budget with a backpack, probably unshaven and unbathed, then he is seen as anathema to Indian cultural values and environment.
Old timers recall auto-rickshaw pullers and the general public beating up hippy couples smooching on Delhi roads in the 1970s. Now they are ignored.
They would also recall the shanty hotels and guest houses along Paharganj and in by-lanes doubling as dens for drugs and prostitution. Drugs in India were supposed to be cheap. Much of that has changed.
There is a positive side to Indian tourism, too. Good conceptualisation and planning have led to the success of medical and health tourism. For long, the ayurvedic ashrams were crying to be projected. It has slowly happened.
More than 150,000 medical tourists travelled to India in 2002, bringing in earnings of US$300 million. Since then, the number of such travellers has been increasing by 25 per cent every year. A CII-McKinsey report projects that earnings through medical tourism would go up to US$2 billion by 2012.
It is a global competition and keeping pace has not been easy. The real challenge to tourism is coming in the form of the Commonwealth Games 2010. It has meant creating a huge infrastructure, including hotels, both star and budget ones.
The tourism explosion has attracted domestic and international hotel chains to put their money and minds into more hotels.
Any visitor to New Delhi's Janpath cannot miss the row of colourfully dressed women selling handicraft and fabrics with mirror work. Unlettered they may seem, but they use a smattering of just about any language the foreign tourist may speak to sell their wares. Even their children do the act well.
Switch to the narrow by-lanes crisscrossing the lake city of Udaipur, touted as Venice of the East.
The entire city is geared to receive the foreign tourist. Wayside shops cater to German or Italian tourists, offering them not only the exotic India of the maharajas of yore, but also confectionery, coffee and wine that a European far away from home would fall for.
From roadside restaurants to the five-star luxury hotels, the food is non-greasy and non-spicy, to suit the European palate. Smiling bearers display tremendous patience with the visitor.
On a recent visit to Udaipur, I came across tourists from the US, Germany, France and Britain. Not part of large conducted group tours, most had come as couples or families.
A German group paid US$3,000 for 15 days across India. Quite cheap when compared with a European or American tour.
"Don't you feel cheated while shopping?" I asked.
"Oh, after a while, we learn to bargain," was how a woman put it, with a smile and no complaints.
Source://nst.com
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