Blog 8: India tourism: violence to women knocks visitor numbers

India used to be one of the most traveled and a hot spot for tourists due to all of the ancient architecture, environment, and culture. Now, India is not as traveled than before due to all the acts of violence towards women. The rape and killing of the woman last December still has the attention of India’s people and the rest of the world. The US Embassy announced a warning that things in India could turn violent without intentions and to stay aware of your surroundings and remain cautious. Directly after the violence last year, the country saw no immediate impact on tourism due to the violence. Since then, more and more women have come forward telling about their brutal experiences of violence, rape, and kidnappings. Over the past year, India’s prestige and character has decreased due to all the negative associations they have with women and violence. Statistics have already shown a 25% decrease in tourists attraction to India for security concerns. Instead of traveling to India, agencies have shown that more people are attracted to other countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, who have not have such severe problems with violence towards women. The Secretary General of India has a target goal of increasing tourism rates at 12% per year and increasing foreign exchange earnings by 2016. He intends on improving security and reducing the amount of violent acts towards women.
I think that this article says a lot about how much of a problem violence towards women is in this country. Now, the violence, rape, and amount of kidnappings is not just hurting the women themselves, but now India’s government and economy. As a result of all the violence and no one taking action on this is reducing the amount of foreign visitors which is really hurting their economy. Hopefully, this will force the government to take stronger actions to help and protect the women and visitors of India. Now that the country as a whole is being effected, the government should take more action and allow rights of women to be more equal.

Lauren Doss, 4/1/2013, 11:20am

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/04/01/india-tourism-violence-to-women-knocks-visitor-numbers/#axzz2PDhT91Xt