While Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Iraq war played havoc with the tourism industries of many countries, India has literally come out with flying colours -- a SARS free destination and one, which was miles away from the war scene.

The tourist arrivals are a pointer to that -- an average growth over the year 2000 and much higher since 9/11 and the December 13 Parliament attack.

"Compared to 254,000 foreign visitors in December 2001, around 281,000 foreigners came to India in December last year, followed by 278,000, 272,000 and 220,000 in the next three months," according to Yogesh Chandra, secretary general, World Travel & Trade Council.

"There are always two faces of a coin. While SARS has badly affected the tourism industry of many South-East Asian nations, non-SARS affected countries and those which have some thing to offer are going to benefit from it," says Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president, WTTC.

Travel and tourism demand had declined by 4.9 per cent in Vietnam, 13.4 per cent in Singapore, 10.4 per cent in Hong Kong and 13.4 per cent in China, according to a WTTC report.

"In fact, SARS and Iraq war have done exactly the same thing to India what 9/11 did to South African tourism. For decades, South Africa has been considered unsafe, but post World Trade Center attack, it was perhaps the safest destination with occupancy rates in hotels as high as 87 per cent," notes Baumgarten.

"Most of the factors are in favour of India today and what the industry needs to do is just cash on those issues and tell the world 'we are safe'. India is a safe destination -- with no risk of war or disease -- and this would be enough to lure people away from even the most popular South East Asian destinations," says Nandini Verma, vice president, Jet Airways.

However, Himat Anand of Sita Travels feels, "this is not the right time for the industry to launch any initiative. SARS or non-SARS countries, people are not travelling anywhere."

"So many incidents have happened in the last two years that people are sick of advisories, wars and terrorist activities and they are just preferring to sit at home," says Anand, noting, however that in two months' time, if everything goes well, the tour operators should be in a position to launch big initiatives to woo tourists for the next season.

Chandra says the Indian tourism has fantastic potential to grow if proper measures are taken both by the industry and the government.

"We are today in a situation where after years of sluggish growth, there seems to be some stability. And if the positive outlook continues for the next 10 years, India can have around 8.8 per cent real growth, much higher than the world average."

"In fact, the tourism industry worldwide is expected to come out of recession by 2004. This particular industry is very resilient," says Baumgarten.

The travel and tourism industry is particularly vulnerable to severe business downturns during periods of terrorism, political uncertainty, military conflict and health-related crises.

"The WTTC is discussing with various government leaders around the world to recognise the severe economic and employment impact experienced by the travel and tourism and implement, when necessary and appropriate, strategic policy measures to mitigate the long-term consequences on the industry and national economies," he said.