First I fumed, whined and I wondered, then threw open this question to a few non-Indian friends and readers.
After 26/11 why should one still travel to India ?
And the response I got was overwhelming. None of them was scared to travel to India. I somehow knew the answer but felt relieved when they said so.
Here are a few reasons which were deciding factors for them to reach this conclusion.
1) India is large. Geographically India is very large and is considered a match to Europe. The chances of something happening to them are minimum. They don’t care if something happens in a remote corner of the country. Can you imagine canceling your trip to one of the countries in Europe because some other country faces a crisis ?
2) The itinerary has already been fixed. People have already planned their trips, booked their tickets and hotels for next year and because of one incident they do not want to cancel their trips.
Only one Australian said they are postponing it by a year since his daughter is expecting twins and he does not want to give her any stress back home. With millions of travelers every year, I think India is still very much a safe destination.
3) India is recovering very fast. The people of India have shown great strength to cope with this tragedy. The Indian government is also working hard to encourage and boost tourism and visits by other nationals. The current England cricket team’s decision to come back for two match series says it all.
4) This is the best time. Whenever such tragedy happens anywhere in the world, invariably the prices drop off. This means that costs of air-tickets and hotel accommodations are often slashed to lure the tourists and to make the deal attractive.
However, I personally do not see any reductions or change, but this is what generally happens in tourism industry.
As far as I know the flights are still very much full and people are on waitlist probably because of approaching Christmas holidays.
I can say, despite these attacks India is still very beautiful, inviting and full of warmth. So, come and be our guest.