Apart from the negative image and the poor quality of accommodation, the lack of cheap and efficient transport facilities have hampered the development of tourism in certain countries.  For example, of the nearly 3000 million people that traveled around the world, India could lure a mere 0.40 per cent, when including the nationals from Pakistan and Bangladesh.  Even among the South East Asian nations, few people actually wanted to visit the Indian subcontinent.  Poor marketing efforts from the part of the tourism department and a negative image of the country as a whole are the main reasons cited for such a situation.  A major image makeover exercise is needed at short notice.

At 3 percent, the annual growth rate in the tourist traffic is well below the world average of 10 percent.  However, there are certain exceptions with the approximately 25 to 30 percent growth rate attained by countries such as Sri Lanka and Thailand.  It becomes evident from India’s unsatisfactory performance that all is not well with the tourism industry in India and more so with the tourism infrastructure, especially the transportation facilities.

India has sent back more unsatisfied tourists in the years gone by on account of the high air fares, congestion, non-availability of air bookings, complicated travel formalities, lack of space in the domestic carriers and the non-availability of train bookings at short notice.  These facts are further corroborated by the findings of the surveys conducted by the scores of market research agencies.

When considering the management approach of the Hotels in London England as a whole could learn much from the mistakes made by the Indian tourism department.  Almost all the prominent hotels in London have a multicultural employee background, and these hotels have made significant strides in changing their approaches to customer management.  Learning from the mistakes committed by the tourism departments of countries like India has helped the hotels in London to make great strides.