ABSTRACT
Tourism image of India has been prismatic in line with its general image, and it has emerged as a must-see destination. It had an image problem and was not perceived as a holiday destination (Seth, 2006). Exploring reasons for the slow growth of tourism in India, researchers have identified that the negative image associations with the country have been one of the main reasons that hinder progressive tourism performance (Chaudhary, 2000). Traditionally India was perceived as magical and fascinating, and for most Americans, it was associated with epidemics flood and poverty. In 2001, Indian tourist’s Bureau launched a campaign to portray an image of India as a peaceful, beautiful and safe country (Eli Avraham & Eran Ketter, 2012). The change in the tourism image of India was more discerning after the launch of the Incredible India campaign in 2002. The review of the literature suggests that the researches on Tourist Destination image in the past 47 years are plenty and have focused on different dimensions of the image. The perspective and concept of destination image have changed over time. In general, there are three major emphases among different researchers on the definition of the destination image. Crompton’s discussed the composite structure of the image construct. In addition, others make use of attitudinal components such as affect and cognition to explain the concept of the image. A third approach is to consider the image as an overall visual or mental impression of an object, place or experience (Rezende-Parker, Morrison, & Ismail, 2003). Then in 2010 destination image was given a different connotation of subjective interpretation of reality made by the tourist (Bigné, Sánchez, & Sánchez, 2001; Gracia, 2002). However, the studies on the image of India as 124a tourist destination came much later than international researches and are still limited in number, and many dimensions are yet not touched. The first study on Tourism Image of India as a destination was conducted in 2000 (Chaudhary, 2000) and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India (2012) in its study emphasized need of regular monitoring of tourist satisfaction and proper control of tourist facilities. The objective of this chapter is to assess the destination competitiveness of India on different tourist attributes.
