Securing India’s tourism industry – one year on from the Mumbai attacks
Thursday, 04 Dec, 2009
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TravelMole Guest Opinion by Mr VH Ron, Managing Director, ECIL Rapiscan
In November 2008, over ten co-ordinated shooting and grenade attacks took place across India’s largest city and financial capital, Mumbai.
The Indian tourism industry was targeted, with two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident, being amongst the four locations targeted by the terrorists.
The attacks saw approximately 450 people at the Taj Mahal Palace and 380 in the Oberoi being held hostage for over 60 hours with six explosions being reported at the Taj Mahal Palace and one at the Oberoi Trident. The terrorists stormed the hotels armed with grenades and assault rifles, saying they were specifically targeting British and American business travellers and tourists.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, shares of Indian Hotels, which runs the Taj chain, and EIH, owner of the Oberoi chain, plunged by over 14%.
Airlines were also affected: the shares of India’s largest domestic airline, Jet Airways, fell by over seven per cent, while the shares of Kingfisher Airlines, the second largest Indian airline, tumbled by as much as 10 per cent.
The terrorist attacks captured world media attention and shook the Indian tourism industry.
It also highlighted the need to increase security measures in India.
In December 2008, Fox News reported that both the Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident had re-opened with a pledge to create an "invisible fortress" that would protect guests. This included the deployment of X-ray screening equipment to scan the baggage of all hotel guests and in-bound packages and supplies to minimise the possibility and impact of future attacks.
The Union Ministry of Tourism in India has said that it would review the basic mandatory safety and security norms it lays down for hotels applying for government-approved star classification.
Since the terrorist strikes, the Indian hospitality industry and the government administration that runs policies for the business have worked hard to strengthen security in an age of urban terror.
Available advanced X-ray inspection technology can address a hotel’s need for non-intrusive inspection of baggage and packages.
The security screening equipment feature advanced threat detection software that can detect a wide range of threats, including explosives and weapons. The technology also enables hotels to be able to screen incoming supplies with automatic colour coding of materials, so that the security staff who are monitoring deliveries can easily identify suspicious objects within any package.
The Indian Government has recently approved 300 hotel projects in the build-up to Delhi hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 60,000 quality rooms are currently in planning and development to be completed by 2012.
These new hotel developments need to deploy advanced security methods to prevent further attacks and secure the safety of visitors.
With hotels, and most recently the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, deploying security scanning equipment, the Indian tourist industry is demonstrating how seriously it is taking security and its commitment to ensuring the safety of tourists visiting India.
*ECIL-RAPISCAN is an Indian-based joint venture between Electronics Corporation of India Limited, a Government of India undertaking, and OSI Systems, a leader in sensors and high technology security equipment.
Phil Davies
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