Will tourism thrive in India, the way it is thriving in many of its south-eastern neighbouring countries?
It is not that countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand have more to offer to a tourist as compared to India. However, the reason tourists go there is easy accessibility . Today in India, there are only three-four major airports, where a tourist can land. It is impossible for tourism to survive for long, let alone thrive in the current situation. We must allow new international carriers into India and the existing ones to increase frequencies. At the moment, we are complacent and disguise this gross under-utilisation of our resources, under the excuse of protecting our national carrier – Air-India and Indian Airlines. But what we do not look at is the additional revenue that can be generated for our carriers out of code shares, bilateral and reciprocal rights with international airlines. It is really unfortunate that India, which was one of the first countries to introduce tourism as an industry and in spite of having innumerable tourist attractions and historical mo
