Terrorism ruins tourism in India

Ever since the economic crisis in the mid-90s, the tourism industry has been struck by a series of setbacks – 9/11, the war in Iraq, SARS, tsunami, climate change and more recently the financial turmoil. The global credit crunch and rupee depreciation had already affected the Indian tourism growth. But the recent acts of terrorism in Mumbai are probably the final nails in its coffin. ‘Incredible India’ – one of the top tourism campaign is now certain to fall short of its goal of doubling tourist arrivals from last year’s five million (to ten million) by 2010. Tourism figures may even regress, as it happened in Bali after the bombings in a nightclub in 2002 and the country lost more than one third of its tourism traffic overnight.

Indian tourism sector is witnessing a downturn due to the travel advisories being issued by various countries against India, recently for the terror attacks in Mumbai and in other destinations in the past. The Mumbai terror acts have put an end to the tourism season, especially the inbound segment, as 22 foreign tourists were killed spreading a wave of fear among foreign nationals slated to visit India.