All Sold Out

indiamike

The Great Indian Holiday is all sold out this season. Inbound tourism has never had it so good: this December, Destination India will have the maximum tourist inflow in the last five years. Even as tourism graphs of other hot spots are declining — Singapore tourism declined by 17 per cent, Thailand by 22 and Malaysia, 18 per cent — India is witnessing a 20 per cent growth, the largest ever, in tourism.

It's not only the foreign traveller struggling for reservations: India's 234 million domestic tourists are also finding it tough to book flights and hotel rooms for the coming holiday season.

From idyllic Kerala to chilly Leh, hotels and flights are all booked. Vancouver-based Uniglobe has put out 'India is sold out for the season' notices in its 26 offices around the world....

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beach

Don’t be heartbroken! The standard 'India Packages' might have been soldout. For a determined tourist there would always be an option in India.

beach

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butterball

Just glad I grabbed the flight when it came up - £500 from London to Kerala over Christmas !

Let's just hope the Hoteliers don't read the papers..

radz

)Its good period for Indian tourism.

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wonderwomanusa

Few of those travellers are Americans, it seems. I've only met 7 in two months!

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Alan D

It's an interesting article but I think it is an attempt to "talk up" the tourist business in India.

Based on the available statistics this year is going to be much better than last year (2002), but last year was a bad year for tourism in India, mainly because of regional and international problems and I would guess by the end of December the total figures will be slightly more than 2001 and roughly what they have been for many years now. The FHRAI (Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India) is hoping for a final figure of 2.6 million foreign arrivals this year. In my opinion the vast potential for foreign tourism to India has simply not been realised as yet.

I'm also puzzled by the assertion of Henry Moses, sales manager of Malaysian Airlines, that the bulk of this is Americans. Perhaps he is talking about Malaysian Airlines rather than total arrivals in India.

As for finding hotels, is anyone out there having problems finding a bed for the night?

I can see that finding a flight may be difficult - this is the busiest time of the year and sometimes people do have problems but this in itself is a problem for the Indian tourist business. If people want to go to India and can't get on a plane how can this be seen as being successful? The problem is that there are too few flights available and this has been the beef of many Indians involved in the tourist business for years.

adrian smith

I think it must be. Although I can't comment on India yet it's well known that worldwide international tourism has suffered badly since 9/11 and continues to struggle in the face of the ongoing problems in the Middle East.

Lily

Two weeks starting December 20, are very busy but until then it is pretty "slack".

Tourism is better this year as compared to the last two years but we do not yet see the boom that many people talk about!

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LuAnnandJawahar

It's all over the news here that tourism is up. I am in Udaipur and it doesn't seem so to me or to the shop keepers. Better than last year, but not good. I have not meet and American anywhere in the last five weeks. (But I haven't been in Delhi.) It is true that many of the five stars around India, including the Lake Palace Hotel are sold out completely near Xmas Time. The midrange/budget traveler will always be able to find a room, maybe not exactly their first choice, but a room afterall. Train reservations have definitely been more difficult over the last two weeks and it will only get worse until December is over.

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indiawise

'Indiamike just raised my hopes to the sky. And Alan just dashed them to the ground!'

Sadly but true what Alan has to say. Its the usual nonsense and bureaucrats and writers conjuring up data (where did they get those stats?). And all that that is happening is that its better than the last couple of years. But that does not mean that its anywhere near boom time. Interestingly the larger 5 star top end hotels are doing well in terms of bookings. But as lily says, its just the end part of december which is busy the rest is pretty slack. There are more tourists in Diu but nowhere close to being busy or even healthy. Lots of Israeli travellers and few others. Off course it will get busy 23rd onwards but thats only for a week or so. lot remains to be seen.

The airlines being booked out is a result of mismanagement of traffic, not catering for a peak load factor and also sadly but true, manipulation by airlines and agents. This has been the regular story since last 3 years.

All in all its good news for travellers as the basic scenario remains the same...with all its minuses india is still an affordable and safe destination.

oldhippie

I have to urgently leave Mumbai tomorrow for a few days and get back next week. It was a MAJOR hassle getting a seat out and back. Luckily the people I work for paid full fare business class and are getting me on some emergency airport quota. Most airlines are simply not accepting bookings or even waitlisting passengers. Most of the 5 star hotels in Mumbai are full house and theres loads of hot Indian chicks all over the place from different corners of this planet.

Bill

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Watson

Meeting or “seeing” Americans has been very seldom in all my past travels in India (north and south). I imagine though that there are quite a few on the up-scale tour program (saw some stateside tourists in upmarket hotels while splurging on a 5-star meal). It seems that although there actually may be a lot of US-travellers abroad in the subcontinent, I never meet them because I usually do the “backpack”, cheep-O thing…Is that the reason? In any case I do think that tourism in India is on the up-and-up.

It’s a huge nation with plenty of space and enough capacity to hold not only the tourists from abroad, but also the local travellers as well. If you book at short notice the chances are that you’ll have problems almost anywhere, especially during the holiday season.

Alan D

Thanks all, for your reports from the "front".

Indiawise, I hope I didn't really dash your hopes because it seems that that is what the Indian tourist business is based on. Hopes and promises that are never fulfilled - all those projected figures over the years that never materialised. I would say that some of the people making these promises, if they were CEO's of some large company, would have been down the road a long time ago, without a golden handshake. The statistics are actually true but they are from the low base of 2002.

I have been checking the flights from UK situation. There's not much available unless you want to spend a night in Moscow or pay really high prices for a ticket with British Airways or Air India (£1000 upwards, return). People might be lucky enough to pick up a cancellation on other airlines. So it looks as if the next few weeks will be pretty busy for the Indian tourist trade. From oldhippy's comment it seems a lot of arrivals are NRI's taking their Xmas leave in India.

It's good news though, that anyone who makes it to India in the next few weeks and is not looking for a five star hotel should be able to find a room for the night - they might have been wondering after reading the Times of India article!

Alan D

Exactly so, and that's why the foreign arrival figures must be so disappointing for some of the people involved in the tourist trade in India. It's also more important these days as outgoing tourist business is, I think, more than incoming.

I hope this forum is at least influencing some people to make India their travel destination and that's one of my reasons for being a member but we can only do so much. The important decisions on how to sell India as a foreign travel destination need to be taken at a high level. Let's hope the people concerned get it right in the years to come.

In the meantime, Caroline and I hope to be part of the official arrival statistics for 2004, as we have in many past years.

indiawise

Alan D, no off course u didn't dash my hopes. And the fact is that you have analysed the way the indian system functions and figured it out for what it is. If there was a performance appraisal these guys would have lost their jobs a long while back, like u put it.
There is a proposal from the UNDP to the indian govt. for 'Rural tourism' in Diu. The objective is to shift from the urban-centric approach in a country which is 74% rural and a population residing in its 7 million villages. The total grant is USD 2.5 million.(not just for Diu..) I'll post the details on a separate post. The bureaucrats are clueless as to the details they need to give in order to be able to 'clinch' the deal. They don't even seem to understand the proposal. I've been asked to, and have submitted a sort of paper giving reasons as to why 'Diu' is appropriate for a pilot project. But sitting in those meeting...one thing is clear...The money will come in and be eaten away and no 'sustainable development' will take place, because of these CEOs. They are convinced that India is big time with western tourists. It makes me weep. But thats how we get all those stats and egg-headed projections. They'll pump in big time money for expensive projects, pay big money to international consultants..(even this is a game within the UNDP part of this process), and make big plans that'll leave both the villagers and tourists high and dry.
The bright side is that this time there is talk of giving operational handling to some NGOs.....now i'm getting off-topic...more later on the right post/forum