Rape Reports Tarnish India's Appeal as a Tourist Destination - WSJ.com
Attacks on Women Rattle Travelers to India
Enlarge Image
Activists on Jan. 2 held candles at a rally after the gang rape and murder last year of a teenage girl in Kolkata. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
NEW DELHI—To get ready for her trip to the Taj Mahal this month, Susan McAdams bought a Lonely Planet guidebook, a new camera and mosquito repellent—then she hired a bodyguard.
"I've heard terrible things," said Ms. McAdams, a 29-year-old business consultant from Australia. "Women are being groped and mobbed on the roads; I felt I couldn't take the chance," she said.
Gang rapes and other violent crimes against women—including attacks on foreign visitors—during the past year have tarnished India's reputation as a tourist destination, especially among female travelers, tour operators and travel agents say.
International tourist arrivals to India last year grew at their slowest pace since the 2008 global economic downturn, rising just 3%, compared with a year earlier. That compares with a nearly 6% rise in arrivals in 2012 and a more than 9% jump in 2011.
"Safety is a huge, huge cause for concern," said Parvez Dewan, the top civil servant in India's Tourism Ministry. "Attacks on foreigners are giving India a bad name abroad."
That could pose a threat to the economy. Tourism accounts for more than 6% of India's gross domestic product, according to government calculations. The country has invested a considerable sum in efforts to boost the sector, advertising abroad with the slogan "Incredible India."
If business doesn't pick up, said Vikas Rai, managing director of New Delhi-based travel agency Discover India, "our livelihoods will be ruined." He said earnings at his firm were down 60% compared with 2012.
After the December 2012 gang rape and murder of an Indian student on a bus in Delhi, local and international media have put more focus on the treatment of women in the world's second-most-populous nation after China.
Nationwide soul-searching after that crime prompted India to overhaul its laws to safeguard women. Parliament last year enforced the death penalty for rape, as well as widened the definition of assaults to include offenses such as stalking and voyeurism. Still, activists say, rapes are grossly underreported, particularly in rural India, and victims of sex crimes remain widely ostracized.
Last month, an Indian court convicted three men for gang-raping an American tourist in June. In August, six men were sentenced to life in prison for a similar attack on a Swiss tourist. A few days after that attack, a British woman visiting the northern city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, jumped from a second-floor hotel balcony to escape an alleged assault, police said.
"The question travelers are increasingly asking is, 'Is India really safe?' " said Mariellen Ward, a Toronto-based travel writer who runs an India-focused blog. Ms. Ward said she has received "more than a hundred emails" in recent months inquiring about safety for women in India.
Tourism officials are mounting a campaign to reassure visitors on safety. Security at popular tourist destinations has been stepped up and the government is planning to launch a tourist help line, which travelers can use to lodge complaints, later this year.
The Tourism Ministry also launched a campaign targeting Indian men. In a 60-second television spot that began airing recently, a female tourist is groped by another passenger in the back of an auto-rickshaw—a three-wheeled taxi common in Indian cities. "Don't touch me. Get off me," the young woman says.
Moments later, a driver who witnesses the crime pulls her from the vehicle, telling the assailant: "You will have to kill me, too," before driving the tourist to safety.
At the end of the video, Bollywood star Aamir Khan says: "Such people embody the true meaning of 'the guest is God' "—the slogan of India's Tourism Ministry. "India salutes them," he says.
Some viewers on YouTube, where the ad was posted, said the commercial portrayed India in bad light. "Who will come to India after seeing this?" one viewer asked.
But "to paint a rosy picture of India would have been inaccurate," said Rajiv Tandon, the chief executive of Mumbai-based Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Productions, which made the ad, saying it only mirrored reality."We only aped reality." The commercial, Mr. Tandon added, is broadcast only in India.
Tour operators say foreigners arriving now are exercising great caution—many buying pepper spray or hiring guards.
In March, Denetim Services, a New Delhi-based security company, started a division offering bodyguards for travelers. Anubhav Khiwani, the co-founder, says his decision was driven by fears surrounding the recent attacks on foreign women.
"It turned out to be lucrative business for us," he said. From March through December, Denetim arranged bodyguards for 21 tourists, nearly half of whom were women traveling alone.
Ms. McAdams, the Australian consultant, said she wouldn't advise friends and family to visit India without a bodyguard, at least in the near future. "Advertisements and gender-sensitization campaigns are all great, but the damage has already been done," she said. "It may take years and years to undo it."
Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com
Attacks on Women Rattle Travelers to India
Enlarge Image
Activists on Jan. 2 held candles at a rally after the gang rape and murder last year of a teenage girl in Kolkata. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
NEW DELHI—To get ready for her trip to the Taj Mahal this month, Susan McAdams bought a Lonely Planet guidebook, a new camera and mosquito repellent—then she hired a bodyguard.
"I've heard terrible things," said Ms. McAdams, a 29-year-old business consultant from Australia. "Women are being groped and mobbed on the roads; I felt I couldn't take the chance," she said.
Gang rapes and other violent crimes against women—including attacks on foreign visitors—during the past year have tarnished India's reputation as a tourist destination, especially among female travelers, tour operators and travel agents say.
International tourist arrivals to India last year grew at their slowest pace since the 2008 global economic downturn, rising just 3%, compared with a year earlier. That compares with a nearly 6% rise in arrivals in 2012 and a more than 9% jump in 2011.
"Safety is a huge, huge cause for concern," said Parvez Dewan, the top civil servant in India's Tourism Ministry. "Attacks on foreigners are giving India a bad name abroad."
That could pose a threat to the economy. Tourism accounts for more than 6% of India's gross domestic product, according to government calculations. The country has invested a considerable sum in efforts to boost the sector, advertising abroad with the slogan "Incredible India."
If business doesn't pick up, said Vikas Rai, managing director of New Delhi-based travel agency Discover India, "our livelihoods will be ruined." He said earnings at his firm were down 60% compared with 2012.
After the December 2012 gang rape and murder of an Indian student on a bus in Delhi, local and international media have put more focus on the treatment of women in the world's second-most-populous nation after China.
Nationwide soul-searching after that crime prompted India to overhaul its laws to safeguard women. Parliament last year enforced the death penalty for rape, as well as widened the definition of assaults to include offenses such as stalking and voyeurism. Still, activists say, rapes are grossly underreported, particularly in rural India, and victims of sex crimes remain widely ostracized.
Last month, an Indian court convicted three men for gang-raping an American tourist in June. In August, six men were sentenced to life in prison for a similar attack on a Swiss tourist. A few days after that attack, a British woman visiting the northern city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, jumped from a second-floor hotel balcony to escape an alleged assault, police said.
"The question travelers are increasingly asking is, 'Is India really safe?' " said Mariellen Ward, a Toronto-based travel writer who runs an India-focused blog. Ms. Ward said she has received "more than a hundred emails" in recent months inquiring about safety for women in India.
Tourism officials are mounting a campaign to reassure visitors on safety. Security at popular tourist destinations has been stepped up and the government is planning to launch a tourist help line, which travelers can use to lodge complaints, later this year.
The Tourism Ministry also launched a campaign targeting Indian men. In a 60-second television spot that began airing recently, a female tourist is groped by another passenger in the back of an auto-rickshaw—a three-wheeled taxi common in Indian cities. "Don't touch me. Get off me," the young woman says.
Moments later, a driver who witnesses the crime pulls her from the vehicle, telling the assailant: "You will have to kill me, too," before driving the tourist to safety.
At the end of the video, Bollywood star Aamir Khan says: "Such people embody the true meaning of 'the guest is God' "—the slogan of India's Tourism Ministry. "India salutes them," he says.
Some viewers on YouTube, where the ad was posted, said the commercial portrayed India in bad light. "Who will come to India after seeing this?" one viewer asked.
But "to paint a rosy picture of India would have been inaccurate," said Rajiv Tandon, the chief executive of Mumbai-based Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Productions, which made the ad, saying it only mirrored reality."We only aped reality." The commercial, Mr. Tandon added, is broadcast only in India.
Tour operators say foreigners arriving now are exercising great caution—many buying pepper spray or hiring guards.
In March, Denetim Services, a New Delhi-based security company, started a division offering bodyguards for travelers. Anubhav Khiwani, the co-founder, says his decision was driven by fears surrounding the recent attacks on foreign women.
"It turned out to be lucrative business for us," he said. From March through December, Denetim arranged bodyguards for 21 tourists, nearly half of whom were women traveling alone.
Ms. McAdams, the Australian consultant, said she wouldn't advise friends and family to visit India without a bodyguard, at least in the near future. "Advertisements and gender-sensitization campaigns are all great, but the damage has already been done," she said. "It may take years and years to undo it."
Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com
Last edited: