The tourist is generally greeted by long immigration queues; not entirely clean airport toilets; lack of ready information in booklet form; taxi drivers waiting outside to take them for a ride (in more ways than one); touts hanging on and whispering offers to change money at a better rate than the official one; hotels that may suddenly discover that there is no confirmed booking, or no room available for the newarrivals, and much more.

And yet, the closer one looks at tourism, the more one realises that success in tourism requires a total national attitudinal change. Tourism cannot be handled by the tourism ministry of the government, or the Tourism Board, alone. Just as in a company, change and culture cannot be handled by the president or CEO, alone. He can only initiate a change to customer orientation and perhaps draw up a master plan. But unless everyone in the organisation, from the chairman to the doorman, becomes customer oriented and changes focus from within the company to outside the company, a total cultural change will remain a chimera.

If Jan Carlson of SAS talked about 2 million ``moments of truth'' every day at 50 customer contacts per employee of the company, the moments of truth in the case of tourism are even greater. Because these interactions embrace many more people, including those of the airlines. If this number is 50 times more, then the change management process in the case of a countryis 50 times more difficult.

We arrived at the Koruna hotel in Prague late one afternoon and were given a room without a telephone. It was on the second floor of the hotel, a heritage building. ``What do I do for making calls?'' I asked the receptionist. ``Well, you just come down to make calls and we will send someone to call you if you receive a call,'' she answered me coolly in halting English. The room charge however remained the same as if the promised facility of a telephone had been provided.

Later that evening, we walked down the bank of the Danube, and found an open air garden restaurant where we could sit and admire the view of the effectively floodlit palace on the hill on the other side of the river. It was a beautiful setting, a full moon night with the total effect of a picture postcard fantasy. My wife and I wanted to sit here as long as possible, so we decided to have our dinner here. The choice of dishes and prices seemed reasonable, and we placed our order with a not particularly helpfulwaiter. After we had finished, we asked for the bill. The waiter wrote one on a slip of paper and gave it to me. I could not understand the fourth figure of 300 kopeks in addition to our bill amount. When I asked for an explanation, he said that it was a service charge. ``As much as 30 per cent?'' I asked him. ``Yes, it is 150 kopeks a head,'' he said.

I insisted that it should have been stated on the menu card if it were the restaurant policy. I asked to see the menu card again, or the manager. He knew he was cornered. He made out as if he were fed up of arguing and said we need not pay any charge at all. He gave back the change and after I left the restaurant, I realised he had shortchanged me by 150 kopeks. He had won his round, anyway.

The following day, our room was changed to one with a telephone. This made it far more convenient. We did not have more than a few local calls to make to a friend who worked in Prague and to the airline to reconfirm our ticket. On checking out of the hotel, thereceptionist, a middle-aged lady with a superior attitude, asked us to pay a bill of $10 for telephone calls. ``But I made only three local calls,'' I insisted. ``Surely this cannot cost $3 each?'' ``It could,'' she said ``depending on how long you spoke at each call.''

``Can I have a printout with the details?'' ``Sorry, it is all automatically recorded. Please pay this because there can be no mistake.'' Once again, an unsuspecting tourist was taken for a ride.

We needed to go to the main station to take a train to the outskirts of Prague. ``I will organise a taxi for you,'' the receptionist proffered with an uncharacteristic enthusiasm. ``How much will it cost?'' ``Only $10,'' she said. It seemed high, so we decided to walk to the nearest metro station and take a train to the main station. This took all of 10 minutes. We had escaped unscathed.

We left the big city and went into the countryside to get a real feel of the Czech Republic. And it was here that we could touch the real soul of the Czechs.These were people who were unspoilt by the tourist flood and had not fallen into the greed trap. They had not been made insensitive by the rush and pressure of the big city. They were warm and helpful and willing to give of the little they had in their own rustic way. We got off the small railway station at Benesov to go and see the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Knopiste Castle. The road sign outside the station showed the direction. After we began walking, we found that the road seemed endless. We had just stopped at the kerb to decide whether we should proceed, when a trailer truck stopped alongside and the driver asked us where we were going. ``Knopiste,'' we told him. ``Please come in,'' he said in Czech, more by gesture than by language.

He dropped us right up at the top of the hill and at the castle entrance. He had saved us an hour's walk uphill. After we had finished sightseeing, we had to wend our way back to the station. It was again a long way, but at least it was a downward walk. We took a wrongturn somewhere along the way. We asked a young lady who was passing by for confirmation of directions to the station. She gave these and we continued to walk. After 15 minutes, a car stopped alongside and the same young lady called out to us. She said she would drop us at the station. ``It is quite a long walk, but by car, we will be there soon,'' she said. She had gone home and brought out the car only to drive us to the station, she told us in halting English. We could not thank her enough.

We had met with so much kindness in just one day at Benesov. We had also met with so much of cheating or attempted cheating in four days at Prague. It was the last days of summer and the beginning of autumn, but the crowds of tourists kept streaming into the country. The government had done an excellent job of building an attractive tourism infrastructure, good and clean roads; floodlit heritage buildings; easy and free availability of road maps; concerts and plays every day at many locations; police alerts forpickpockets and thieves; tourist sightseeing packages; advanced airport facilities. But the `all permeating' attitudinal change has not taken place, wherein the nation would pass the litmus test of `moments of truth.' And when it does, the Czech Republic, which is soaked with history and where cities and towns are open air museums, will be among the most sought after destinations by tourists who want to be transported on wings of history into an era of medieval magic.

-- Walter Vieira is president, Marketing Advisory Services, Mumbai