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302 index, trip
Witt, S.F., Gammon, S. and White, J. �1992)
`Incentive travel: overview and case study of
Canada as a destination for the UK market',
Tourism Management 13�3): 275±87.
index, trip
BOB McKERCHER, HONG KONG
The trip index �Ti) represents the ratio between the
total number of nights �Dn) spent at a single
destination to the total number of nights �Tn)
spent on the trip, multiplied by 100. The index is
100 for a trip spent wholly at one destination; and
50 for a destination which receives half the nights
of a trip. It provides a useful summarising statistic
for circuit tourism.
India
CHRIS COOPER, AUSTRALIA
India is the second most populous country in the
world and travel has long been a central component
of its culture. Pilgrimage is an important
element in all of India's main religions, with such
centres and routes that have developed over the
past three thousand years remaining important to
the present day. The modern era of tourism in
India started with the incorporation of most of the
country within the British Empire in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. The British developed
transportation routes which laid the basis for
tourism in India. As in Europe and North America,
railway development served as a stimulus to
business and leisure trips. Not only did the
railway system reinforce the position of pilgrimage
centres in this society because of their increased
accessibility, but it also led to the development of
hillside resorts in the Himalayas as summer
holiday destinations for the British Raj.
Despite the relatively early development of
resorts, international tourism received little
consideration as an economic development
mechanism by the government until the 1990s.
India's federal structure has a major influence on
tourism development. Under the constitution,
responsibility for tourism exists at both the state
and national level. At the national level, the
primary source of tourism policy is the Department
of Tourism of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and
Tourism, as well as the India Tourism Development
Corporation. The latter is a limited company
which also comes under the auspices of the
Department. At the state level, each state has its
own ministry responsible for tourism. Governments
at all levels have historically played a major
role in the supply of tourism facilities and
infrastructure, with the majority of higher
quality accommodation being state-owned. Several
states have established tourism development
corporations in order to encourage both foreign
and domestic investment in tourism infrastructure,
often through public±private partnerships.
The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat, for
example, developed a plan which included several
tax concessions for investors, such as exemption
from luxury tax, sales tax, electricity duty, turnover
tax and entertainment tax, and long-term loans
from state institutions. Concessions at the state
level have also been matched by central government
fiscal incentives for tourism projects, including
exemptions on income tax for 50 per cent of
the profits from foreign exchange earnings, on
the remaining 50 per cent if the amount is
reinvested in new tourism projects, and on import
duty on imports for hotel projects. Central
government has explicitly sought to encourage
regional tourism development by providing interest
subsidies on term loans from eligible financial
institutions for hotels in cities other than Mumbai
�Bombay), Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai �Madras),
with higher rates of subsidy being available for
hotel development in designated tourism areas and
heritage sites.
The provision of financial incentives for the
industry by the central government in the 1990s is
indicative of not only increased attention to
tourism's potential for generating employment
and foreign exchange, but also wider deregulation
of the Indian economy to competition and foreign
investment. In the accommodation sector, the
federal government now allows foreign management
up to 51 per cent ownership of hotels. India
had relatively high rates of economic growth of
over 5 per cent from 1992 to 1997. The growth of
domestic demand is predicted to lead to a