Dear Carl, Thank you indeed for narrating to us your honest experiences. Foremost, if at any point during this visit you or your wife felt any discomfort, we offer the deepest apologies. This is not how we would promulgate India in our pride.
India is a land where we worship women as goddesses, welcome guests as gods, and even show reverence to animals and trees. Yes, like every country, we too have individuals whose behavior doesn't represent our values — but they are not who we are as a people.
At HappyOuting, we run a humble travel initiative that promotes respectful, clean, and soul-touching experiences across India. We actively work with locals to ensure travelers feel safe, valued, and connected — not stared at, overcharged, or judged.
You’re right: pricing disparities, unwanted attention, and assumptions can ruin a beautiful experience. However, some of us work every day to change this story.
As for this question — “What can India and Indians do to attract more international tourists?” — we believe it starts with empathy, education, and accountability. We need to educate locals on cultural sensitivity, enforce fair pricing and safety standards, keep tourist areas clean, and promote responsible tourism with genuine human connection at its heart.
Your feedback helps us grow. We request you to see India again—not just through the pain, but through the warmth, culture, and millions of kind hearts that truly define us. 🙏
We respect you and your voice. And if India hurt you in any way — then from all our hearts, we’re sorry.
In fairness, “you ARE rich”
most tourists don’t realize how rich they are for being able to travel and don’t really understand poverty and the depths of poverty that exist in other countries.
the depths of poverty that exist in other countries.
They rarely understand the poverty that exists in their own countries.
So much this. It's sure to be a rough figure, but I quickly found someone calculating the percentage of people travelling internationally in 2018: it's 2 %. Let's say he's off by a lot (and assuming only a fraction of people with the money actually travel) and go with 10%, that's still a pretty elusive circle of rich people right there.
That's pretty fascinating..
Sure, but back in the home countries the rich are not fleeced for their money for regular services and goods.
People are willing to pay more money but the "I am entitled to your money" makes it feel like they are being taken advantage of.
They might as well go to a relatively more expensive country(more expensive than the "tourist prices" in india) to avoid feeling othered.
Yep, it feels unfair.
Judging by the downvotes, some very aggressively do not want to understand. They’re offended that you should even suggest it.
The problem is that they don’t feel rich because they compare themselves to people who are even more wealthy.
That, and they feel that this FACT that they are wealthy invalidates the “hustle” they put into getting there. Some of them ACTUALLY put in that much work, most of them didn’t. ALL of them feel like they put in that much hustle, whether they did or didn’t.
Ok folks, keep your comments focused on the money and ignore the sexual violence. Great job.
One major reason I'd not want to go to India is that there seems to be a significant crowd of Nationalists that would rather deny any issues than face and fix them, and can be quite hostile to anyone that points then out. I don't really care for the "apes" commentary as that seems racist AF, but if tourism is a goal then cleaning up regressive bullshit like caste and gender discrimination (and not conducting assassinations on foreign soil then getting hostile when called on it) would be a good start.
Why would you go to another country and talk about their politics with the locals? Don't point out issues with a country you are a guest in to nationalists.
So, I have been both working, studying, and spent leisure time in India about a year in total. I lived for 6 months outside New Delhi in the slums. Made interview among tribes and people displaced by established nature tourism. Together with my wife. Been to tourist spots as well.
Yea you are kind of like a bunch of school kids sometimes. Just a bit scarier. I only encountered the grandiose self image besides India in the US.
My wife could not be alone a second.
The fascist Hindu nationalism is awful to see , for a western fascist probably laughable.
Just to be plain: You think India is best in all the ways , for an outsider it's like a bunch of people throwing everything in a pile and letting the strongest win.
Just the amount of people trying to prove forced marriage is so much better than the possibility for divorce or just marry who you want.
Of course different rules based on caste , one of my Indian friends who is kind of famous in the movie business still have a hard time based on his last name and actually trying to do some good in India.
The ads in your papers sounds like you selling cows rather than your sisters and daughters.
Don't get me wrong there are great people , great movements and great things in India.
But overall WTF...
Today I would not return for leisure unless to visit friends there.
*Edited due to poor wordings.
Awhile ago I learned that there's a thing called casteism. I thought racism was extremely stupid, but casteism just cranks the stupidity to 11. So instead of discriminating against someone's skin tone or nationality, you're discriminating against literally nothing??? Whatever, man...
Yea Hindu nationalism is kind of built around that. If you are poor you are poor because you deserve it. And we are rich because we deserve it etc..
Interviewed a guy from the Communist party about caste among other thing and even they have a hard time getting people out of the caste think among their own members.
It's so hard rooted you need a revolution to even scratch the surface of it.
From what I heard in podcasts this is even a serious problem in the US tech scene, which hires a lot of professionals from India. Imagine being descriminated against by your manager because of caste in silicon valley.
FYI: RS 750 is $9. Doesn't seem that unreasonable to me 🤷
In fact, India should charge every foreign tourist RS 830 (~$10) except the British who should have to pay RS 1660 (~£15) but it comes with biscuits and have little shops that sell overpriced tea 👍
I'm from Pakistan so it's not like I can ever get a visa to India in the first place but why do this? Why make an entire nationality pay more money because of events they were never involved in? If this is supposed to act as "reparations" then again, why are you charging people who are already paying a lot of money to get to the country?
They do this in Thailand. When you live here & don’t pull in the same income as before but can speak the language & whatnot, it feels awful to be treated as such an other when your local community accepts you. You also need to understand how they check which is normally just a skin color check—I’ve spoken to Filipinos that never get the foreigner rate. The worst one for me was in Laos where I was joking in Lao with the staff & had to pay the price, but some ethnic Lao folks from France got the local price despite not speaking a lick & asking me local culture questions in English. I didn’t hold it against them personally, but it really sucks.
Judging from the train videos, I don't think they can entice me. Too crowded. No hate intended. I don't like crowds.
Some of these are legit, but the money ones are bullshit. Especially entrance fees to national monuments. I think of it not as an extra charge for tourists, but as a discount for locals.
I live in the US, but was able to travel to India 25 years ago. It was an unforgettable experience for me, and I would love to return someday. I must say however, that my wife is less excited by the prospect. I would like to think that India's reputation along these lines is both exaggerated and improving.
The money one would be perfectly fine if it was an explicitly stated official policy where Indians get cheaper access to their own tourist attractions and cultural sites. I think it probably starts to get annoying if everything you pay for is marked up by some amount on the spot by chancers who are taking advantage of your naivety. I haven't been to India so I don't know if this is a big problem or a rare occurrence, but I have heard of it happening before, typically in poorer countries.
Lifting people out of poverty by giving them honest jobs with livable wages is probably the only way to fix this, because poverty creates desperation and desperation can lead some people to petty theft, or a host of other personal and social problems.
Indeed, I think that people in a country should be able to see their national monuments/treasures at a reduced cost. It's pretty likely that at some point their taxes paid for some of it, and making such things only for tourists is lame.
During Covid here (Canada), locals were given free access to national park, and the restricted tourist traffic meant that people were actually able to find camping spots (many of them get gobbled up and pre-booked by tourism agencies/bots). A lot of people realized there was a lot of the country that they had been missing simply because the industry prioritized tourists over locals. If you're going to a country as a tourist, budget and plan to pay as a tourist!
That's just semantics, like businesses being banned from giving a surcharge for using a credit card, but they can give a discount for cash. It amounts to the same thing.
I guess. But either is fine with me. Credit cards have leverage over small businesses who often have tight margins. As for up-charging tourists who visit places in foreign countries, I think of it as a subsidy. If they normalized the entrance fees so that all paid the same, and the total maintenance costs were met-- this may well 'price out' poorer locals. A nicer solution might be income-based, but how would you verify such information at a park entrance?
I also want to add that where I live in California, there are some local attractions that offer discounts to local residents. I really can't understand the fuss.
I think of it not as an extra charge for tourists, but as a discount for locals.
Of course the tourist who can obviously afford to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a vacation doesn't want to be asked to spend 5 more fucking dollars on something and would rather shift the responsibility on to the locals. But why? When locals probably hardly ever go, and tourists are the one they not only depend on for income, but who are the ones putting the added strain on the local infrastructure?
Because you're a cheap selfish privileged yet oblivious individual who is there because you can get a lot more for a lot less money, and some just don't care why or how or who is really paying the price, that's why.
Why does this website look like a newspaper? Does Quora print a newspaper somewhere.
I think this is an Indian newspaper which has printed this question from quora to show it's readers. I say indian newspaper because the design looks familiar.
No, I think some general newspaper included the quora question in its paper edition.
Paying higher prices than the locals pay is just part of being a tourist, especially for a lower income country. Tourists are bringing cash into the tourist sector of the local economy. If you can't afford to pay what is a pittance to an outside tourist, maybe travel isn't for you.
The sexual harassment I can sympathize with more. That's not just cool. Unfortunately, though, it's far from unique to India.
Build toilets not nuclear weapons
Basic human rights, but shitting in the streets is a start.
Making special accommodations for Global North tourists only really enriches the wealthy in the Global South. It may provide a few hospitality industry jobs, but I suspect that, all told, it’s a wash or a detriment to regular people just trying to live their lives.
It's a detriment to treat women like humans and not sexual objects to grope?
No, obviously not. Don’t essentialize all accommodations down to the singular issue of groping women tourists.
This can definitely be applied to other countries too
ITT: South Asians
