India's incredible journey from holiday backwater to the destination du jour.

From The Times
June 15, 2009
Rhys Blakely

As a sales pitch for a holiday paradise, you would think it left much to be desired. “We have hoardings obscuring heritage sites, we have terrible roads, we have sewage and solid waste problems. And we have some of the lousiest airports in the world.”

But Amitabh Kant's blunt critique of his homeland's shortcomings is part of an approach that has earned glowing reviews from some of the tourism industry's fussiest arbiters - picky Western travel writers. When he is not deploring the state of Indian public toilets, the dapper civil servant, who in 2001 was handed the job of rescuing India's sinking tourism industry, likes to measure his success by counting the billions of dollars that he has helped to add to the country's foreign currency reserves by luring upmarket travellers to the lush backwaters of Kerala and the grand palaces of Rajasthan.

In industry circles, he is treated as something of a guru. The day before talking to The Times, Mr Kant had been the guest of honour at a lavish Mumbai reception hosted by Ratan Tata, India's most-fêted businessman. The event recognised Mr Kant's standing as a global doyen of the fiendishly tricky art of “national branding”, a status he achieved by masterminding the successful “Incredible India” campaign, the country's first co-ordinated effort to market itself under a single banner.

But not even a man of Mr Kant's talents can control world events. None has been more horrific than the terror attack on Mumbai last November, in which 166 people were murdered by a group of ten gunmen who deliberately sought to kill Western visitors to India's financial capital.