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Indian tourism's Real Friends - Israel , Russia and the UK after the Mumbai terror attack

On Nov 26th 2008 terrorists struck Bombay. 175 people died. The attack has had a bigger toll, tourism, business and perceptions. I just speaking to friends in India and they told me that the hotel industry is facing a lot of cancellations. Today I spoke to a friend who returned from a trip to Goa and Mumbai. She told me that hotels have had a lot of cancellations and the tourists who are still visiting are from Israel, Russia and the UK. Everyone has a right to worry about their safety but unfortunately that is the sentiment that terrorism seeks to achieve i.e change in human behavior. I am not sure how many years it will take to assure other tourists from USA, Europe and Asia to visit India again but till them the terrorists have won.

This made me reminiscence about  my visit to Sri Lanka last year. We went to Bentota in the south which is far away from the fighting in the North and East. The philospophy I adopted is that it is equally dangerous to cross the road in Washington DC as a pedestrian as it is to visit Sri Lanka. On the trip from the airport to Bentota  we passed by almost a gun toting soldier posted at every milestone. This may also have been because the SAARC conference that was scheduled to begin.   We enjoyed ourselves and met countless tourists from Europe and Asia but sadly no Americans.  Do you agree with this ? Should our culture change? Is this a big risk? Please share your opinion

Sri Lanka - Family Pics - July 2008

See article Money Not War will hurt Sri Lanka

CIA factbook on Sri Lanka

Comments

Anonymous said…
I went to Bentota in the south which is far away from the fighting in the North and East. The philospophy i adopted is that it is equally dangerous to cross the road in Washington DC as a pedestrian as it is to visit Sri Lanka.
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