Why should local communities suffer in order to facilitate someone else’s adventures? The trickle-down effects of over-tourism reach the economy, society, and industry.
India’s pilgrimage business is booming, with choppers for the rich and dorm beds for the poor. But the days of wooing foreigners to the Taj, Jaisalmer, and Palace on Wheels are over.
Around 60 families in Kanpur—most of them newly married couples—have cancelled their planned trips to Kashmir. Pune, Haryana, Chandigarh are all witnessing a wave of cancellations.
Over the last decade, we have begun to take the stand that even if foreign travellers do not want to come, we don’t really care. Even Indians are increasingly avoiding our tourist destinations.
The Nainital littering incident shows that many tourists can’t manage the simple act of putting their rubbish where it belongs. Their trash is a signature that reads—‘tourists were here’
Two months earlier, Dubai created a five-year, multiple-entry tourist visa tailored to Indian visitors. South Africa’s simplified visa scheme will also start in 2025.
India's garment industry benefiting from Bangladesh crisis also caught international media's attention, as did rise of Indian tourists, driven by higher incomes & better flight options.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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