5 countries issue travel advisories against India-ToI-25.10.11

Himanshi Dhawan TNN 

New Delhi: One after another, five countries – United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – have issued travel advisories against travel to India during the festival season. The ostensible reason for the caution is terror threat at this time, but the Indian government isn’t impressed. It fears the advisories will hit tourism and says terror shouldn’t be used to create a scare about visiting India. 
    “I have taken up this with the ministry of external affairs and asked it to persuade these countries to withdraw the travel advisories immediately,” Union tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahay told TOI. “This is nothing but scare-mongering. Leave aside other parts of India, 100% booking is being reported from Jammu & Kashmir. If this isn’t a sign of normalcy, what is?” The travel industry is understandably jittery as it fears a cancellation rate of 10-15%. 
FEAR FACTOR 
T ravel advisories issued by US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand 
Terror threat in the festival season behind alert 
Angry India calls it 
‘scare-mongering’ 
Travel industry fears a 
cancellation rate of 10-15% 
Tourism ministry asks MEA to take it up with countries concerned Foreign tourist arrivals up 10% 
    Adverse travel advisories tend to hike travel insurance as the risk factor goes up. So, instead of coming to India, many tourists are likely to opt for other destinations like Thailand, Sri Lanka and China. 
    A delegation of the top hoteliers, travel agents and restaurant owners met with Sahay to convey their sense of dismay. Apart from taking up the matter with the foreign secretary, the minister also raised the issue in France at a meeting of the tourism ministers of G-20 countries on Monday, while expressing his concern at the “barriers” that are likely to obstruct growth of tourism in India. 
    Foreign tourist arrivals in India between January-August 2011 have seen an encouraging 10% growth (in absolute terms, 3.8 million tourists came to India in this period compared to 3.4 million last year). However, India is still beaten hollow in tourism by small Asian countries like Thailand. While India’s share is 0.59% of the world’s share of global arrivals, Thailand’s is 1.62% and China’s 5.8%. While our most popular beach gets 2.7 million foreign tourists in a year, Phuket gets 5 million. The Taj Mahal gets 3.1 million foreign tourists a year while the Great Wall of China gets 10 million. 
    With India’s potential barely realized, the Indian hospitality industry is worried. Hotel Association of India president Nakul Anand said that the advisories issued from large source markets like US and UK would impact the inflow of business and leisure travelers in the country. ``Given that it has been issued at the start of what is typically perceived as the beginning of the tourist and business season in India, it is bound to impede the forecasts for the industry,’’ he said. 
    Travel Agents’ Association of India president Rajinder Rai said that the advisories will spell trouble for the industry. ``We have taken up the issue with the tourism ministry demanding that the advisories be withdrawn. It’s acompletely unfair practice,’’ he said.