1) Poor Infrastructure – India’s airports, railway stations, roads, are not at par with even asian developing countries like china, malaysia, thailand, UAE, etc. The shabby state of our infrastructure puts off potential tourists, as well as companies wanting to invest in tourism related projects.

2) Poor Development of potential tourist spots: This has to do with poor infrastructure as well as bad government policies. Poor infrastructure puts off tourism projects. For example a Disneyland, a great tourist attractor, is coming up in Dubai simply because it has world-class infrastructure even though its is an Islamic country. Dubai has seen exponential growth in tourism simply becasue of some great man-made tourism projects. Government should give incentives and create laws to rapidly improve infrastructure.

3) Poor governance and mismanagement at tourist spots: Example; Almost all our pilgrimage places hold great historical importance. They have great historical stories attached to them and they can be a great way to showcase/ promote indian culture. But such places are almost always too overcrowded, repete with dirt, filth and are unorganized. Stampedes are testimony to such mismanagement. Maybe we could have audio visual halls at such places to make tourists aware of the historical importance, Its all there but its unorganized and mismanaged. Easy local transportation, good hygienic food, clean and affordable lodging, & efficient man-management can vastly improve the attractiveness of tourist spots.

4) Savvy Marketing: Perhaps this is the most important thing. A lot of the times it is about perception of the places. This can only be resurrected through savvy marketing of Indian tourist destinations. For exmple Kerala’s tourism marketing campaign "God’s own country" vastly improved its inflow of tourists.

5) Safety and Security: Since childhood I have been hearing about terrorism in Kashmir. It seems I will never be able to visit kashmir in my lifetime. News about bomb blasts, stampedes, terrorism, and/or petty cimes puts off tourists. This cannot be resolved overnight but requires strong political will in the long run

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