This refers to the editorial “Boosting tourism in India” (February 9). External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s launch of the Visit India Year in China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to issue visas on arrival to several countries, including the US and Australia, will promote tourism in India. The critical aspects for any foreign tourist coming to India are safety, ease of travel, hygiene, and honesty in dealing with locals.
Our Government not only needs to focus on these options but it also needs to market places and options which are unexplored by tourists. India does not have dearth of such places. Even medical tourism has been growing at a fast pace only in the last few years. As noted in the editorial, Kerala and Rajasthan are popular with foreign tourists but other States like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka as well as the Andaman and Nicobar islands and the North-East needs to be better marketed to the outside world.