Front Page

Some travellers skip India plans

NEW YORK: In the past decade, India has gone from a place that relatively few Americans visited to one of the top international destinations for U.S. residents — ahead of other locales like Brazil, Switzerland and Greece.

But some travellers are now cancelling plans to visit because of safety concerns following the Mumbai attacks. The Department of State has issued a travel alert for India, and it’s unclear how long it will take for tourism to the region to bounce back.

Nick Ehle, 29, a computer consultant in New York City, cancelled his February trip to a friend’s wedding in Mumbai. He had planned to make a three-week trip out of it.

“It makes me overall nervous about the security there,” he said. “I was going to a do a lot of the travelling by myself.”

The U.S. was the No. 1 source of foreign tourists arriving in India in 2007, according to the Government of India’s Bureau of Immigration, followed by visitors from the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Canada and France.

Travel by U.S. residents to India was up 10 per cent in 2007 compared to 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce Travel & Tourism Industries.

Last year, India was the 11th most visited international destination by U.S. residents. — AP

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu