Recently I had been to a 3 star hotel with my family for dinner. The hotel had both boarding and lodging facility and majority of tourists who stayed there were foreigners. We had ordered food and were waiting to be served. By that time a foreign family, who stayed in the same hotel, entered and occupied a table, next to ours. I was anxious to know about their food habits and a bearer came to them asking what they would like to have. The foreign guy demanded the menu card but the way he asked for that was strange. He started looking the menu as soon as he got that.
Bearer again asked “What would you like to have sir???” The foreign guy showed something in the menu card and I was surprised to know it was a South Indian dish when the bearer read that aloud “Oh Uddina Vada…” Hearing him the foreigner asked “How much for Uddina Vada?” in the foreign accent. Bearer replied “20Rs Sir”. Foreigner asked again “For one Uddina Vada?” and bearer replied “Yes sir for one”. I could see the foreigner giving a skeptical look and he started discussing something with his family. Then he turned to the bearer and said “Last night I had ordered one Uddina Vada to my room through room service and I was asked to pay 45Rs for the same…” I was perplexed to hear him say that. What can he do, even if he knows he has been cheated? Fight for those 25 rupees in an unknown country where he can barely speak the language that people can understand? Register a complaint for 25 rupees? He just argued for sometime and sat simply, helpless.
This is not a matter of 25Rs or half a dollar but is this the way you treat a tourist? Do you think they will return back to our place again? Do you think they will give a positive feedback in their homeland? Tourists are the main source of advertising about our country in the world which can attract more tourists and we are treating them in this way. It was a 3 star hotel which looks so much disciplined with everyone in special uniforms, welcoming customers, talking them in a polite way but here it ended up cheating them.
This is the truth behind Indian tourism. The revenue got by the tourism alone is sufficient to run the government but India is losing its trust in hearts of the tourists. One side Aamir Khan is, in his ad, trying to convey about treating tourists in a better way and on other side, people are trying to take advantage of them. Jaago India Jaago… If you can’t help them, atleast don’t bother them. This should be in the minds of the people to make India a better place for not only Indians, but also for all the people in the world.
