India slipping in US perception

NEW DELHI: Indians may not think thesame about America, but Americans do not like India. Two recent surveys showthat India is still not popular among Americans, whether for investment or as atourist destination. The first poll was conducted by Gallup on behalf ofthe American Chamber of Commerce in India while the second study on travelpreferences of American tourists was conducted by travel website iExplore.com.Both the surveys show India slipping in the perception of US investors andtourists. While the reasoning for a drop in India has been attributed toterrorism and security fears, including American and British travel advisoriesbranding India as an unsafe region, during the same period, Egypt, anothernation riven by terror attacks, has improved its ranking from 13 to seven. Whilesecurity is a concern, the main reason being attributed to the lukewarm interestof corporates is poor infrastructure, red tapism and excessive bureaucracy.Despite the Indian government going the whole hog in promoting India as atourist destination, India''s rank in a list of preferred holiday destinations ofAmericans has only slipped, sharply, from seven in 2000 to 23 in 2002, says thesurvey by the website.To make matters worse, China, which competes withIndia in more ways than one, has improved its rank from 16 to one.Thesurvey thus points at the abysmal state of infrastructure, including problems oftravel and lodging, that requires urgent improvement to attract the tourists andinvestors.The Gallup survey looked at mostly Fortune 500 companies andtheir intentions to invest in India. While 45 per cent said that they wouldinvest more in India, their plans are very modest compared with the money thatis likely to flow to other nations. The strategy for India, it would seem, is tofeel the market rather than dig in deep.Only 5 per cent of those polledhave plans to bring in upwards of Rs 500 crore into India, at least 25 per centplan to make investments of more than Rs 50 crore. What is a cause forfurther worry, as the survey points out, is the perception that the situation inIndia is only going to get worse, instead of improving. An equal number ofcompanies, about a third each, are satisfied and dissatisfied with the businessclimate in India. The plans for other Asian destinations, especiallyChina, Taiwan, Philippines and Malaysia are much bigger, with China again verymuch ahead of India. China, with its regime providing a culture ofentrepreneurship as well as quick clearance of investment plans, scores muchhigher.While the Indian government talks of foreign direct investments aswell as increased forex earnings from tourists, the going, as borne out by thetwo surveys, is not going to be easy.