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1、Travel Industry Wooing Tourists from IndiaIn India, May is the cruelest month. The short spring is already a distant memory, and the heat- and dust-quelling monsoon rains are still weeks away. Theres no better time for Indians to take to the road.All told, some 550 million Indians travel to other pa
2、rts of the country each year. Once school lets out for the summer, many families set off on annual visits to grandparents in their native town or village. Another 12 million Indians choose to fly overseas. Wealthy families from Punjab and Gujarat, in the north and west of India, respectively, flock
3、to cosmopolitan meccas麦加，伊斯兰教的朝圣之地这里为：众人渴望去的地方 like Switzerland or Dubai, where women can indulge in沉溺于 brand-name shopping and don the revealing, Western-style fashions they dont dare flaunt back home.But while more than half a billion Indians take a holiday each year, the appeal of travel has trad
4、itionally been less about exploring someplace new than about simply getting out of town. Many Bengali families in the eastern corner of the country, for instance, escape north in the summer to the cooler Himalayas - an unfamiliar land and landscape. But they typically join large tour groups, interac
5、ting almost exclusively with other Bengalis and eating only Bengali-style meals.There is, however, a quickly growing segment of Indian travelers - mostly young, rich and hailing from Indias larger cities - who are decidedly more adventure-seeking. Unlike their parents, they visit uncommon places and
6、 pursue unconventional activities - a safari in Tanzania, a ruins tour of Turkey, an F1 race in Singapore - with an interest and curiosity about other cultures that previous generations may not have had.It is still a small proportion of Indian travelers who are so venturesome - but, by the numbers,
7、even a small proportion qualifies as a mass movement, globally speaking. So it is no surprise that the travel industry has taken note. From New Zealand to Namibia, government tourist boards have designed campaigns specifically to woo Indian travelers, and luxury-tour purveyors like Cox & Kings and K
8、uoni, both based in Britain, advertise hard for Indian rupees. Kuoni, for instance, has joined hands with fabled Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films to offer the “Enchanted Journey” tour of movie locations, letting travelers ski the Alps or boat on Lake Zurich in the footsteps of their favorit
9、e stars.In February came another nod to the Indian travelers increasing clout: international travel-guide leader Lonely Planet launched an Indian version of its eponymous monthly travel magazine (other editions of the magazine are published in the U.K. and Brazil). And in October, the bible of luxur
10、y travel, Cond Nast Traveler, has plans to follow with an Indian edition, building on the established successes of the publishers Indian versions of Vogue and GQ.The target readers of the new magazines are Indians who are traveling more and traveling differently - many as singles or couples without
11、children or parents in tow陪伴着. “Youll be surprised by how many married women there are traveling without husbands and single women traveling with girlfriends,” says Sumitra Senapaty, 49, a travel writer who has run Women on Wanderlust, a travel club for women, since 2005 and has watched her business
12、 grow many times over. “I quite struggled with it initially,” she says. “I didnt have the pocket to advertise, so everybodys mother, friend, aunt and sister spread the word. I just wanted women to come onboard.” Today, Senapatys tours - which usher female travelers to hard-to-reach places like Ladak
13、h, a high mountain desert in the Himalayan foothills - are usually sold out.In addition to seeking girlfriend globetrotters, the industry is going after the growing number of travelers who embark on longer, activity-driven trips and seek novel experiences, rather than just another jaunt to the hotel
14、 pool. More and more, Indian travelers are going deep-sea diving in Australia, for instance, and booking yoga retreats in the Himalayas. “There are more people choosing adventure travel over conventional holidays,” says Vaibhav Kala, who runs Delhi-based Aquaterra Adventures and arranges trips for m
15、ore than 3,000 customers per year. “Since four or five years ago, our clientele常客 has turned on its head. From catering to largely inbound foreign tourists, were now catering to mostly Indian travelers.”But catering to Indian travelers means catering to certain Indian preferences and peculiarities,
16、no matter how far-flung or exotic the vacation. Lonely Planet Magazine India always gives readers the requisite practical information about obtaining visas and finding consulates overseas, but it also has a section called Fancy a Curry? that locates Indian restaurants and vegetarian options in foreign cities. “Indians are getting a bit more adventurous, but we still need a little hand-holding关怀备至,” says Vardhan Kondvikar, editor of Lonely Planet Magazine
