Help them enjoy India.

"English regional mayors will be given the power to charge tourists a tax for staying overnight in their towns and cities, Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has said." "The move would bring England into line with Scotland and Wales, which will both bring in tourist tax next year," and "Research suggests a levy of 1 pound per day in London could raise 91 million a year for the capital." BBC. "In 2024, overseas residents made 42.5 million visits to the UK, compared to 38.0 million visits in 2023." "Overseas residents spent, in cash terms, 32.5 billion (about $42.9 billion) in Great Britain in 2024, compared to 31.1 billion pounds (about $41 billion) in 2023." House of Commons Library. On the other hand, India received nearly 10 million foreign tourists in 2024, but nearly 31 million Indians went abroad. 2019 saw nearly 11 million visiting India and about 27 million Indians traveling abroad. pib.gov.in. On paper, "India saw 18.89 million international tourist arrivals at the end of 2023, just crossing the pre-pandemic level of 17.91 million in 2019." But, "non-resident Indians (NRIs) made up a big chunk of the arrivals. And arrivals from Bangladesh, many for medical care, made up another big chunk," wrote Varun Khosla. "Every dollar a tourist spends - on hotels, flights, local crafts, or food - directly adds to our foreign exchange. There is no need for shipping containers, trade deals, or port clearances," said Dipak Deva. "We have everything, except tourists," wrote financial adviser Suraj Kumar Talreja. If we had 100 million foreign visitors every year it would create "billions in foreign exchange, hundreds of thousands of jobs, thriving rural economies and a global soft power leap." "We don't need to reinvent the Taj Mahal," but we need to get rid of "dirty public spaces, aggressive touting, scams, patchy infrastructure, poor marketing abroad and a complicated visitor experience." BT. Recently a video from a UK vlogger traveling by train in India said that a fellow passenger put his foot on his seat despite repeated requests not to do so. "Some dude just spat on my arm." "He looked at me, said something and it went all on my arm. Big gob of it," he wrote. NDTV. "An irony of Indian history is that much of its finest heritage lay buried and forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered by British colonial archaeologists." Sir Alexander Cunningham "identified and mapped ancient sites from Taxila to Sanchi, Sarnath and Bodh Gaya, reconstructing a lost geography of Buddhism," wrote Swaminathan Aiyar. "James Princep succeeded in translating the Brahmi script, making it possible to read ancient pillars and rock edicts of Emperor Ashoka," wrote Aiyar. Foreigners may have excavated most of Egypt's pyramids but, "Last year the country drew 15.7 million visitors who spent a record $15 billion," despite enormous political turmoil since the uprising in 2011. ddnews.gov.in. The present government is trying to claim India's past as glorious Hindu achievements (Reuters) and that India is "vishvaguru" which means teacher of the world (wikipedia). If we welcomed foreigners and gave them a pleasant experience, instead of spitting on them, they would learn a lot more. Otherwise, it is just hot air for the great unwashed. Totally useless.