Why do Indians love to travel abroad?
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, about 50 million Indians travel overseas every year. India has so much to offer in terms of exotic locations, history, wildlife, culture, delicious local cuisine, and adventure. It is a vast country and every province has some new experiences and insights. One should always be careful with dos and don'ts in India. The question then arises Why do Indians prefer not to explore their own country and prefer to travel to Europe, the USA, or other countries?
• It has become a fad to travel to exotic foreign locations and post pictures on Instagram and Facebook with the background of well-known sights of the world. If you are not doing so, you are not considered successful or trending. For my first international vacation, I went on around world trip in 90 days
• Traveling in India is no longer cheap if you want to stay at good hotels. In fact, luxury resorts and restaurants are more expensive in India than in many locations in the world. People feel that if they have to spend so much, it would be better to tick one country off their bucket list.
• India has so many locations where you can do adventure sports like skiing, bungee jumping, sky diving, parasailing, and all. But people don’t trust the infrastructure provided for such sports as proper security measures are not taken. So, people prefer to travel abroad for such activities. Queenstown and South Africa are the preferred destinations for adventure.
• The cleanliness is another issue. The beaches of Goa are not worth visiting because there is litter everywhere and there is no maintenance of any sort. You might go to Banaras, Kashmir, Kerala, Kolkata, or Shimla, we see plastic and garbage in various parts of the city. Whereas most Western cities are so beautifully maintained.
• Shopping is another attraction. Though in recent years, all major brands have made leeway in Indian markets, Indian shoppers still believe that shopping is much better in countries like Bangkok, Dubai, London, and the USA. VAT refunds in the UK, tempting sales in the USA, and duty-free shopping in Dubai are the reasons people buy luxury goods in these places. Malls in Dubai are big attractions.
• Families like to go abroad for vacations as India is still lacking entertainment centers like Universal Studios, Disneyland, and Ocean Park.
• Gambling in India is still illegal. Three states give permission to run casinos – Goa, Daman, and Sikkim. The facilities and crowd there can nowhere compare to the casinos in other countries.
These are a few of the reasons why Indians prefer not to travel to their vast and stunning country and prefer to take a flight to some foreign land.
And can you blame them when you have so many budget locations like Croatia and Eastern Europe?