Click to play videoNew Delhi: It maybe an incredible year for tourism in India, perhaps the best in the last decade. But for foreign tourists, it really isn't such an incredible as Simon Wynn’s case proves.
Wynn was duped by no less than government-approved tour operators.
“We just didn't anticipate somebody trying to rip us off,” said Wynn.
The nightmare for Simon began at the New Delhi Railway station, where he arrived to board a train to Agra.
“Somebody who appeared to be an official wearing a badge, gave us what appeared to be very sound advice about our train, saying that it was running late or might be cancelled and that we should get in a taxi and go over to Old Delhi Railway Station where we would pick up a later train and on the way we should pop into a government ticket office to get our tickets changed,” recounted Simon.
The tout led Simon to an agency in Connaught Place - Exotic Adventure Tours. The agency has been a listed tour operator with the Ministry of Tourism for 12 years now and its name features in the list of approved tour operators on the ministry's website.
“When we got to this office, we finally agreed he would cancel our rail tickets, cancel our flight tickets back to Delhi and we would put our journey in his (tout’s) hands,” said Simon.
With inputs from Prarthana Gahilote
At the agency, valid rail passes worth Rs 30,000 were cancelled and Simon was given a taxi for four days for over Rs 60,000.
“I, at first, was very angry because we'd been misled, we'd been sold something based on a scam,” he said. “We came away wondering who we could trust in India.”
For tourists like Simon Wynn, a trip to India is not about Incredible India and the glowing statistics that the Ministry of Tourism takes such pride in. It is not even about the ancient concept of Atithi Devo Bhava. It is about a system that failed to deliver a much-advertised promise.
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