China’s hosting of the Olympics could very well be a boon for tourism there; but it can get one thinking that sometimes tourism might be too much of a good thing – that is, there might be too much to handle. In Asia’s other big country, India, the country’s strong economy and increases in tourism are bumping up against sufficient places to lay one’s head. While India doesn’t look to have an Olympiad in the next decade, it will still be hosting some big events, notably the Commonwealth Games. The Wall Street Journal reports that:
For the 2010 Commonwealth Games, for example, New Delhi offered income-tax relief for hotels built in time for the international sporting event. But out of the 30,000 rooms needed, the city has only been able to line up 17,000, says M.N. Javed, hotels commissioner at the Ministry of Tourism.
The Journal puts India’s persistent hotel shortage in perspective by noting that:
India has only 86,000 hotel rooms in a country of 1.1 billion people. By contrast, there are more than 4.3 million rooms in the U.S and almost 74,000 in New York City alone … room rates have shot up in New Delhi and Mumbai, where a night at a central five-star hotel can cost more than $500. The Ministry of Tourism predicts India’s room shortfall will increase by more than 50% to about 150,000 rooms by 2010.
It would seem to be a good time to be building hotels in India.
