India is the land of diverse cultures and landscapes, offering the visitors a variety of attractions including cultural temples and historical landmarks along with thriving metropolitan cities. Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in India. It generated USD 4.2 billion in annual revenue. The emergence and growth of the hotel industry is largely dependant on tourism.
The Indian tourism industry has not had it so good since the early 1990s. With global recession seeming to have waned decisively, Indian economy growing at around 7% per annum and rise in disposable incomes of Indians, an increasing number of people are going on holiday trips within the country and abroad resulting in the tourism industry growing wings.
It is fast turning into a volume game where an ever-burgeoning number of participants are pushing up revenues of industry players (hotels, tour operators, airlines, shipping lines, etc). Thus, the tourism sector is expected to perform very well in future and the industry offers an interesting investment opportunity for long-term investors.
Despite the numerous problems, tourism industry was the second-largest foreign exchange earner for the country during the year ended March 2003. During 2002, 2.2 million foreigners visited India. Foreign tourist in-flow has risen 20% this year.
Conde Nast ranked India amongst the top 10 tourist destinations. JBIC ranked India as the fifth most attractive investment destination. The World Social Forum, Ad Asia, World Bamboo Congress, Commonwealth Games, Laureus World Sports Academy Global Submit, F1 along with some of the biggest expos and conferences of the world chose India to play host.
There are around 1000 classified hotels including non-star category and the total room availability is pegged ...