Paper Title
Indian Tourism and Stereotypes

This paper talks about how several stereotypes affect the Indian Tourism industry. Stereotyping always exists there while deciding which place to visit. But the fact that a country’s tourism industry is highly dependent on these stereotypes is often neglected. People have certain perceptions about a place, it’s people, culture and more importantly about it’s safety. Taking the case of India, people have notions that India is a completely unhygienic country, with dangers regarding road safety, lack of technological advancements and also issues regarding health. The question of safety is a big problem as many women and families from various countries are hesitant to even consider India as a holiday destination.This also holds true in the case of countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. This paper would also talk about how media plays a huge role in highlighting these stereotypes. We see many international movies depicting poverty and religion in India while often neglecting the beauty. Channels like National Geographic also focus on nothing more than it’s wilderness. These stereotypes make a huge impact on the minds of people and damages the image of the country. Although, looking on the bright side it also attracts a certain crowd in some situations. Many people are attracted to visit India for spiritual or religious experiences not knowing that it has much more to offer and are often surprised. Furthermore, this paper digs deeper into the reasons behind the existence of such stereotypes and propose several ideas to resolve them. It also studies the attempt made by the government to remove said stereotypes and how far they have been successful. This paper talks about both domestic and international tourism in India with the help of a few international examples. It focuses primarily on the middle class of society rather than on the elite class. Keywords - Stereotypes, Representations of Indian Culture, Indian Tourism.