Though the general feedback doing the rounds is that outbound tourism has slowed down in the recent past, interestingly the foreign tourism boards refuse to give up on India. The country is viewed as a robust business hub for their inbound business and they are investing further to bring in business. The new boards and sub-boards are joining the bandwagon while the well established boards are also going all out to lure the Indian traveller. Offering unique experiences and moving away from vanilla offers seems to be the order of the day. International tourism boards are reinventing the wheel with special business offers, ranging from luxury to adventure, from sports to culture. `Soaking in the experience’ has become the new catchphrase.
What better time to literally soak in the experience than in the monsoons and especially this year when the rains have decided to fall and how. Like our previous cover story that focused on the uniqueness of waterfalls during the monsoons, this issue will give you a peek into the hotspots you can escape to over the weekend during the monsoons and otherwise. India has a rich repository of tourism gems, discrete, and many a time unapproachable. As India celebrates 67th Independence Day, it is the right time to retrospect on the tourism splendours in our own backyard and learn the trick that can truly make India click. There is plenty to explore if we have a well defined plan in place.
And finally with Telangana, seeing the light of day, it would surely have its own impact on tourism and hospitality. It’s now Andhra Pradesh’s turn to develop its hidden jewels, going beyond Hyderabad and its famous tourism products. Developing coastal Andhra for tourism, greenfield airports, highlighting the cultural aspects of the state can be interesting for tourism. Interestingly so, the union tourism ministry itself is led by the son of the soil.
Reema Lokesh
Editor
