Political Polarisation, Social Exclusion, and Violence Against Foreigners: A Death Knell for the Inbound Tourism Industry in India

Safety in the destination country is the key determining factor that shapes the travel decisions of potential tourists. India, with its cultural heritage, has been a preferred destination for foreign tourists. However, emerging political polarisation and a rise in human rights violations have raised concerns over the safety of foreigners visiting India. Recently, an increase in instances of attacks on foreign tourists has been reported in India. Such attacks have become a major concern for international travellers, bloggers, media, agencies working with refugees and migrants, and experts in the tourism industry. Despite being a widely discussed topic across news platforms, foreigner safety and underlying political situations have been scarcely discussed in literature. To address this gap, we have reviewed reports from different government agencies, international media, and non-profit organisations. This study presented a situational analysis of inbound tourism and the political scenario shaping its future in India. We found that growing political polarisation and nationalist movements have led to gender, religion, and racial violence against foreigners. Multiple layers of social exclusion, discrimination, and pro-nationalist sentiments have been discussed. The combined effect of these issues is detrimental to foreigners safety and the overall inbound tourism industry in India.

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: ScienceOpen Preprints

Publisher: ScienceOpen

Publication date (Electronic preprint): 27 April 2024

Affiliations

[1 ] Research & Development Wing, Pragati Creations, India;

[2 ] Social Work Department, Tezpur University, India ( https://ror.org/005x56091)

Author notes

[* ]Email: dr.vishaltikhute@ 123456gmail.com .

Author information

Vishal Tikhute https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5985-5498

Balaka Chattaraj https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9394-9638

Article

DOI: 10.14293/PR2199.000835.v1

SO-VID: 71b53f39-a0e8-493d-8f26-ea3484dfb4ae

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This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

History

Date received : 27 April 2024

References

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[1] E P Abdul Azeez, Negi Dandub Palzor, A P Senthil Kumar, A Kaini. ‘You people have brought the virus here’: Othering experience of northeastern people amid COVID‐19 in Delhi, India. International Social Science Journal. Vol. 72(245):905–917. 2022. Wiley. [Cross Ref]

[2] Bauman Chad M.. Faith and Foreign Policy in India: Legal Ambiguity, Selective Xenophobia, and Anti-minority Violence. The Review of Faith & International Affairs. Vol. 14(2):31–39. 2016. Informa UK Limited. [Cross Ref]

[3] Mushtaq Reffat, Thoker Aijaz Abdullah, Bhat Aaqib Ahmad. Does institutional quality affect tourism demand? Evidence from India. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. Vol. 4(5):622–638. 2021. Emerald. [Cross Ref]

[4] Thomas Toney K., Mura Paolo. The ‘normality of unsafety’- foreign solo female travellers in India. Tourism Recreation Research. Vol. 44(1):33–40. 2019. Informa UK Limited. [Cross Ref]