The Indian tourist abroad

At lots of places we saw loads of Indian tourists. Most of them were like us, doing group tours by bus. There are atleast 5 companies in India now doing this: Cox & Kings, Thomas Cook, Raj Travels, Kesari and Cosmos. It got a bit much at some of the restaurants we ate -- there would be two Indian tour groups eating and one more waiting to get in. Often people from different groups would chat quite amicably (and immediately try to get the dope on the other tour and how much it cost and how good it was!), and at other times, people would try to ignore each other (why do you'll have to all turn up here and spoil my special feeling !!). At one place in Switzerland I talked to the caterer and he said that he was serving 400-500 Indians a day, and that some survey had found that some 4 or 5 million Indian tourists had already been to Europe this year, and the season was not more than half way through. (I think the 4 or 5 million number seems way unrealistic). Cox & Kings has 4 groups (atleast) of 45 people each leaving every week for the six warmer months of the year. Our own tour leader also said that 'the market is bursting with Indians' right now. To put it in perspective (she said), in the '70s and '80s there were loads of American tourists and then after that hordes of Japanese and now it was the turn of the Indians and Chinese (we saw some Chinese tour buses too). I have a vision in my mind of a pyramid symbolizing the wealth distribution and number of people at each level. With all the new well-paying jobs in IT and other areas, the number of people who can afford a trip is rapidly increasing and I think it will continue big time. This is a good business to get into ! I think the Europeans are also seeing this trend and responding to this, especially Switzerland. There are all sorts of nods to the Indian tourist in Switzerland, from the Bollywood restaurant in Jungfraujoch to Indian music playing on the cable car.

For the most part, we (ie Indians!) seemed well-behaved enough and didn't upset the locals too much. Our tour leader however struggled a lot with us, we didn't keep time, we rushed her at roomkey distribution time, and rushed the table at dinner time, stuff like that :-). Several people had much trouble with English (leave alone the local language) so communication with the local people often a problem. There was one sort-of instructive episode in Antwerp, Belgium: we had just arrived at the hotel we were staying for the night and it was this small lobby, with a small funny lift and another lift somewhere else in the building, so pretty confusing and messy. Before we had arrived, it was quite and peaceable (as most places are in Europe!) and after we had arrived it was a veritable madhouse. Luggage all over the place, people talking to the dozen loudly across the room, yelling at their kids, kids yelling back, infant crying. It must have been pretty overwhelming for the normal quiet European to see.






A group of Indian tourists (not from our group!) just.. being themselves. In Rome