Female tourists down 35% following sex assaults in India

Tourism in India dropped significantly in the first three months of this year as a result of the heinous rapes and attacks on foreign female travelers that received widespread international attention, a new industry survey has found.

In the months from January through March 2013, the number of foreigners traveling to India has dropped by 25 percent compared to last year, according to the report released on Mar. 31. The number of women tourists has declined by 35 percent, the report finds.

The report published by the New Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India was based on a survey of 1,200 tour operators in different cities in parts of the country. The winter months from November to March mark the peak tourist season in India.

A press release accompanying the report says, “Nearly 72% of the tour operators said that there has been a number of cancellations of booking taken place especially from women tourists in the last three months from the countries mainly from UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc.”

It goes on to say that many tourists have emailed the tour operators directly citing the issue of women’s safety as the reason they were cancelling their trips.

“The in-bound foreign tourists have opted other Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam etc. The situation has been further aggravated by the advisory issued by various countries to their citizens visiting India to be cautious and avoid India,” the press release said.

According to India’s Tourism Ministry, 6.6 million foreign tourists visited India in 2012, earning the country $17.74 billion in foreign exchange.

In December 2012, a 23-year-old female student in Delhi was attacked by six young men along with her male friend after getting on a bus. The six attackers proceeded to rape the female victim, who later died in a Singapore hospital as a result of the attacks she sustained.

This incident led to an outpouring of thousands of Indians, particularly the youth, protesting in the streets of Delhi and elsewhere for stronger laws and greater efforts by law enforcement to protect women. At the same time, the attention the rape received at home and abroad also led to grater news coverage on specific rapes in India, as well as the general issues of rape and women’s rights inside the country.

The rape and murder case in December has been followed by the widely publicized incidents where foreign female travelers have been attacked. Last month a Swiss woman was gang raped in central India as she and her husband camped in a remote forest.

And a young British woman says she was forced to jump out of the window of her hotel room to avoid a sexual attack in Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal.

Several countries have issued advisories to their citizens to avoid India in the wake of the brutal December 16 gang rape, which was followed by a seemingly endless series of sexual assaults on women reported from across the country. <Compiled from The Hindustan Times and other media reports>