Foreign women avoid India owing to sexual crimes: Survey

New Delhi, Apr 1: Foreign

are avoiding trips to India as the country is increasingly making the headlines for offence against women, particularly rape, in news media across the world. A Delhi-based business association has informed this.

The number of foreign tourists visiting India has fallen by 25 per cent since December, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has found in a recent survey which covered 1,200 tour operators around the country. The fact will frustrate government plans to improve the number of tourists by 12 per cent every year.

Women tourists are even more afraid to visit India. The number of women travelers has diminished by 35 per cent as women from Britain, Canada and the US have been found cancelling scheduled trips, local business operators told the group. According to many, the tourists were asking through emails whether travelling in India was safe.
A brutal gangrape in New Delhi had shaken the world and although the media and political authorities have pursued the issue of crime against women since that incident, the crime rate against women hasn't decreased.

Recently, a Korean and Swiss women were raped in the state of Madhya Pradesh, causing further embarrassment to the country. More recently, a British woman said she had jumped from her hotel window to avoid an indecent conduct from a hotel official.

D S Rawat, secretary general of the association said India was trying to improve its battered image in front of the world but the latest trend in foreigners' visit shows that the effort is still a distance away from reaching a satisfactory conclusion.

Tourism has taken a serious beating in cities across the country.

OneIndia News