Last week, I had an epiphany while waiting for a visa for two hours in the freezing rain outside the French Embassy in London. I understood a big reason why a country the size of India receives such a small fraction of global tourist traffic.Only about 4 million tourists came to India in 2005. Even as early as 1999, Korea, Japan and Indonesia each received nearly 5 million tourists, despite being much smaller and offering much less to do than India. Singapore alone received 9 million tourists in 2005.Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange and jobs, and it is also crucial to improving our image in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the Indian government has historically done a terrible job of promoting tourism, although that is beginning to change. In the last few years, the tourism ministry has done a good job of marketing India to the rest of the world through their Incredible India campaign and other efforts (India’s growing presence on the global stage has also helped). However, much still remains to be done. One simple step that would make a huge difference is to issue visas on arrival for tourists from most countries, instead of requiring them to apply in advance. Most countries do not require citizens of Western countries (who form the vast majority of international tourists) to obtain visas in advance. This makes it much easier to plan trips and be spontaneous. Even more important, it removes the psychological barrier of “the hassle of getting a visa”. Tourists are generally forced to take a day off work to apply for an Indian visa in person, or suffer a three-four week wait if they make a postal application. For most people, it’s simpler and much less hassle to just book a flight to Thailand or Singapore instead — and we lose out on a tourist who would have actually preferred to come to India. For example, despite living in London for nearly four years now, I’ve only made two visits to continental Europe (and one of those was on business), because of the hassle involved in getting a visa for each trip. In the same period, I’ve been to the US seven-eight times, because I don’t have to worry about applying for a visa on each occasion (I have a 10 year visa, which effectively feels like not needing one). Despite being right on my doorstep, France, Germany, etc, have lost out on tourism revenue from me. India is making the same mistake on a much grander scale. The tourism ministry has tried to introduce visas on arrival for years but has not succeeded due to resistance from the home ministry on amorphous ‘national security’ grounds. There are already extra security measures in place for visa applicants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and I’m not suggesting that they should get visas on arrival (especially since they do not generate significant tourism revenue). However, there is no reason to deny visas on arrival to citizens of most other countries. The chances of such people committing crimes or overstaying their visas and trying to emigrate to India is minuscule and would be more than offset by the benefits of increased tourism. At any rate, as in most other countries, tourists can be required to apply for a visa at the airport and be subjected to the same scrutiny their documents would have been subject to at the Indian embassy abroad, but with less hassle for the visitor, and the advantage for us of being able to study the tourist in person before deciding whether to admit him or deport him. Besides, forcing a would-be terrorist to submit his passport and copies of his flight ticket and hotel booking to an Indian Embassy abroad to get a visa is hardly a deterrent for such people — it’s not as if they will apply with passports saying: “Name: Osama bin Laden; Occupation: Global Terrorist”. One writer has called measures like this unnecessary visa requirement ‘security theatre’. It refers to measures that make us feel safer — such as a pointless barrier for foreigners — without actually making us any safer in reality. As a side effect, this measure would also make it easier for Indians to get visas and travel abroad. Although other countries (especially Western ones) are unlikely to abolish the visa requirement for Indians (because of concerns that it will lead to massive illegal immigration), much of the global visa system is based on reciprocal arrangements between countries and such a step will make it much easier to negotiate more liberal policies with other countries.There are other problems with the Indian tourism industry, including the lack of transport and hotel infrastructure, and the widespread image of being (only) a low-budget, backpacker destination with serious health and safety issues. It will take much more time to resolve these issues, but allowing visas on arrival is a simple measure that can be taken immediately, and which will bring immediate benefits. The writer is a London-based lawyerasimov@vsnl.com
