The excitement around elections in the country is apparently not limited to Indians. ‘Election tourism’ has people from other countries visiting India to see how the world’s largest democracy votes.
The south of India, however, appears to hold little attraction to such tourists. Even Karnataka, which remains in the spotlight for becoming the working model for the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, with its Congress–JD(S) coalition government, has failed to generate much interest.
The concept started with the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2012, said Manish Sharma, chairman of Gujarat Tourism Corporation Society, under which some tour operators were offering ‘election tourism’.
This time, some 1,600 tourists from countries such as the U.S., Japan, the UAE, France, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Kenya have arrived in India to witness the unfolding of the Lok Sabha elections, he said. The demography ranges from people with journalism or political backgrounds to those just interested in tourism.
A majority of the bookings, he said, were for Varanasi — from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a re-election. Lucknow, Jaipur, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai are also popular. The tours cost between $500 and $1,400.
Modi, a major draw
The Prime Minister is a major draw for foreign tourists owing to his “global image”, followed only by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
In comparison, only two south Indian destinations have attracted some tourists: Karnataka — Bengaluru, in particular, and Kerala. They have one booking from a group of 32 students from San Francisco, U.S., to Bengaluru in May, but this has to do with its fame as an ‘IT hub’ along with the elections, Mr. Sharma said.
“The group will be taken to see the Raj Bhavan as well, and we will also take them to see the Mysuru palace. We had written to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy two months ago about our election tours, but we have received no response. We are hoping to get the group to meet at least some leaders from the BJP and the Congress there,” he said.
Kerala, on the other hand, generated 28 enquiries in recent times, some of which can be attributed to Mr. Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad.
Tour operators are now looking at diverting some tourist traffic from Mumbai and Goa towards other circuits of south India. But overall, things are looking bright for the trend, they said. As Mr. Sharma said, around 5,000 tourists, including NRIs, visited India during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time, the numbers could be double.
