Among 1.4 billion tourist arrivals worldwide in 2018, India had 17.4 million visitors according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. India ranks 7th among top 10 destination in Asia, behind China, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Macau. India posted an impressive 12.7 per cent increase in tourists from 2017 but needs to do much more to become a popular destination. Compared to India’s 17.4 million visitors, France had 89.4 million tourists in 2018, Spain 82.8 million, the US 79.6 million and China 62. 9 million.

Tourism continues being the global economy’s major powerhouse. The World Travel & Tourism Council reported the global tourism industry adding a record US$ 8.8 trillion to the world’s combined Gross Domestic Product, a significant increase from $8.3 trillion in 2017. Tourism created 319 million new jobs worldwide. India’s share of such global tourism riches was a mere $ 28.5 million, according to the United Nations ‘World Tourism Barometer’. For tourism to become India’s economic game changer, industry stakeholders need to remember that tourism is not merely about sightseeing places, beaches, rivers, mountains and grand hotels; among the most cherished souvenirs tourists take back home are memories.

Happy or unhappy memories mostly happen through interacting with local people. India needs to be a land of happy memories for holidaying tourists. India’s inspiring ‘Atithi Devo bhava’ principle – ‘guest is equivalent to god’ – in practice should have tourists feel like they are in heaven. But we know what happens as soon as the tourist ‘god’ arrives: the ‘god’ gets cheated. With crooked cops as accomplices in well-greased mafia operations outside airports and train stations, taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers loot our tourist ‘gods’, in the land where ‘guest is god’.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Tourism spends millions of dollars on globally marketing ‘Incredible India’. But political leaders and senior bureaucrats must grasp this basic reality: impolite custom officials, cheating taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers are the first problems to fix before India becomes even a modestly popular tourist destination. India has to first reach up to Myanmar’s reputation for hospitality and friendliness – despite having far less tourist infrastructure – before aspiring to become a France or Hong Kong in attracting tourists.

Instead, the wonderful ‘guest is equivalent to god’ principle becomes an exercise in hypocrisy when the ‘tourist gods’ often fall victim to exploitation, cheating, overpricing, under-servicing and various scams. At the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, I saw a family from England with two little children made to wait for hours for their pre-booked forest lodge – which seemed doled out to bribe-givers. Uttarakhand typifies the good and bad of India’s tourism. This northern Indian state has the official tagline ‘Land of Gods’ (devas and brahmas in the Himalayas).

November starts the peak winter season for international tourists in Rishikesh, 42 km from state capital Dehradun. The past 13 years I have generally seen the local Garhwal people treat tourists well, including having dignified dealings with women. Not so when weekend hordes arrive. “When the Delhi crowd comes, I have to go and hide”, a friendly young German long-stay tourist told me at the Beatles Café in Tapovan, Rishikesh. Personally, I found most weekend visitors from Delhi are peaceful adventure tourists causing no trouble, but a few louts give the many a bad name.

So too with a country. India ranks 12th among 20 rudest countries in the world, according to an online travel site ‘Skyscanner’ poll. Rudeness, uncouth behavior such as staring at people, short-sighted cheating (the sheer stupidity of cheating tourists of a few rupees and thereby lose out in global tourist business nearly $9 trillion!) – all can be corrected with clever public awareness campaigns and better upbringing of children. India has a unique culture enriched with more than 5,000 years of civilization. Harappa and Mohenjodaro were only two of the 1,500 cities said to be in the Indus River Valley.

But we need to upgrade a modern culture of civility, including inculcating polite habits such as more often saying ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. Parents, teachers and elders have to teach children basics of politeness, including not staring at strangers, or asking then personal, prying questions. Public awareness campaigns of politeness can help stop annoying behavior such as staring at tourists. A second glance at an unusual sight is okay, not so rudely staring for uninterrupted, embarrassing long minutes at tourists, particularly at women. The guest to treated as ‘god’ has to be made to feel comfortable and safe, not the target of uncouth rudeness. Mother Nature has blessed India with sufficient geographical attractions to be an earthly paradise.

The rest is up to us to make international guests feel like gods in heaven – instead of victims in an impolite country filled with cheats, filthy public toilets, ill-mannered louts staring at strangers. India’s tourist infrastructure has improved much in recent years, including having in Mumbai and Delhi two of the world’s best airports. But for ‘Incredible India’ to be an enriching reality instead of a marketing myth, we need to create a much more polite tourist-friendly India.

Train taxi and auto drivers to be honest; teach people basic politeness. The central government must create a nationwide tourist-friendly machinery – including giving every tourist entering India a 24-hour helpline number that works and helps to quickly solve the problem the tourist is facing. Then our celebrated ‘guest is god’ principle stops being ungodly hypocrisy. Instead, the noble ‘Atithi Devo bhava’ motto in practice will increase the number of happy international tourists, enhance India’s reputation and boost India’s economy.

(The writer is a senior, Mumbai-based journalist)