First, the bad news. India is ranked a lowly 65th by the annual travel & tourism competitiveness report of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Now, the good news. Self-respecting tourists?individuals with independent minds?do not bother with assessments made by grouchy compilers of drab data or mechanical users of standardised templates when it comes to responding to the appeal of a country. They come to India for the incredible experience it is, for the sheer beauty of how the country stretches the limits of possibility, for the very fact that even a lifetime is barely enough for the wonders of this exceedingly interesting land, and for many other reasons as well. In trashing the findings of the WEF report, however, the tourism ministry has chosen to base its argument on the scientific infirmities of the survey. Hard data has been used for only 42 of the 71 indicators used, it complains, and the rest are based on subjective sample surveys of questionable validity. As an indication of India?s success in attracting foreign tourists, the ministry has publicised comparative data on foreign exchange earnings per tourist. ?Incredible India? gets $1,920, while ?Truly Asia? Malaysia, a direct rival on the diversity platform, gets only $520. Ergo, India must be doing something right.
The problem with the tourism ministry?s approach is that in seeking to argue on grounds of numerical data, it lets down the spirit of its own visit India campaign, which has done well by rising above all the cantankerous criticism made of the country and its ways by those whose minds stay imprisoned by indoctrinaire patterns of expectation. The campaign sells India as an entirely different experience. What is unstated is the innate resistance to attempts to force-fit it into a grid for quick analysis. It would be consistent with this theme to be indifferent to biased opinions as much as spending levels of visitors. India?s dollar starvation is long over, and the situation is quite the reverse now. What should be underlined instead is India?s openness to all. It is possible that richer tourists have better education levels and exposure to atypical attractions, India?s USP, and so they visit more than others, but this is not relevant. What counts is to encourage more independent thinking around the world.