Is India a third world country? Tourism officials at the world's hottest tourist destinations might beg to differ. Indians rank head and shoulders above their global counterparts in terms of tourist dollars spent per day.
According to the Singapore Tourism Board, an average Indian tourist spends $1,574 per day, an astronomical figure in comparison to even an American tourist's spend of $658 per day.
Singapore has the world's highest tourist density (around 9,665 tourists per sq. km), and earns the highest foreign exchange per tourist ($639 per day).
Singapore Tourism Board director (south Asia), C Chang, says: "We are offering our most attractive packages to Indian tourists, who are the largest spenders in Singapore. If you take into account India's population, the country looks like the most lucrative market."
Representatives of other tourism boards also echo these views about Indian tourists. Some feel that for many upper-middle-class Indian families, an overseas holiday is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hence, when they do holiday abroad, they make the most of it -- the loss to India's foreign exchange reserves be damned.
Ritu Sharma, marketing manager (India), Switzerland Tourism, feels Indians are passionate about home food and so they end up spending a considerable amount for expensive Indian food in Switzerland. "For most Indians, it is a once in a lifetime trip. So they try to accommodate all the mountain excursions in their tour package. This is of course besides the shopping," she adds.
An Indian tourist, during an average stay of around 2.5 days at Switzerland, spends about CHF 440 per day, against an average spend of CHF 150-300 by tourists of others countries. Japanese tourists, who stand next to Indians, spend around CHF 400 per day.
Ditto Australia. An Indian tourist spends an average of $3034 per visit to Australia, which is higher than the spends of most other tourists. Mauritius, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, other hot destinations, are no different, say industry sources.
What is more alarming is that the number of outbound tourists from India is growing at almost five times the rate at which tourists are coming to India. Industry sources estimate that India's travel account will become negative by 2002 if tourist spends in India do not go up correspondingly.
