Tourists to India – Beware.

You could lose your life, be molested, raped and attacked. And the Indian police will do little to help you or investigate the incident.

India’s police will most likely deny the incident and attempt to cover it up.

India’s tourism campaign is called Incredible India.

But the campaign might more aptly be called Incredible Murders, Incredible Rapes & Incredible Attacks.

Incredible India or Dangerous India?

A few months back, there was the case of two NRI girls being attacked in Mumbai near the J.W.Marriott Hotel.

Before that there was the case of foreigners being raped and murdered in New Delhi.

Now there is the tragic case of rape and murder of a young British girl Scarlett Keeling in Goa, which the Indian police initially tried to cover up stating that she drowned after taking drugs. It was only after the 15-year-old girl’s mother raised hell that a second autopsy was conducted and the truth about the teenager’s rape and murder came to light.

A Reuters‘ story quoted Goa’s Tourism Minister Francisco X. Pacheco acknowledging the murder of the young girl:

This is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up.

India is already a miserable failure on the tourism front.

Already pathetic, India’s tourist inflow will further decline as news spreads of the heinous crimes against foreigners.

According to the figures from the World Tourism Organization, tiny Croatia got 8.47 million international tourists in 2005. In the same year, India got a piffling 3.91 million international tourists while its communist neighbor China got a whopping 46.81 million tourists. Go figure.

What a disgrace that the Indian Tourism Ministry spends millions on “Incredible India” ad campaigns (including ads on NYC buses as above) but fails to ensure basic safety or infrastucture for tourists visiting India.