India still incredible'

The slowdown in the west may be worrying economists silly. High inflation and terrorism in India may have our politicians in a flap. But guess which group isn’t bothered about any of this? Foreign tourists; contrary to perception, arrivals till July this calendar year have risen 10.6 per cent to 3.15 million.

“At the most, foreign tourist arrivals have seen a 3 per cent dip due to terrorism-related threats,” says Manish Dayya, General Manager, Lemon Tree Amarante Beach Resort in Goa.

Even the political potboiler currently being played out in Jammu & Kashmir seems to have impacted only that state. “I don’t think it will have much of impact on inbound tourism,” says Manav Thadani, MD, HVS Hospitality Services, a hospitality consultancy.

Thadani feels that any downturn, if it does come about, will owe its genesis more to a general economic slowdown than to any political events.

—Tejeesh N.S. Behl