Doing India Proud

QUITE a big percentage of Indians travelling abroad on groups are first-timers. This, claim tour operators, creates complications. Like dealing with entire groups who open their achar bottles and rip mathri packets in aircrafts or waiting rooms, spreading crumbs on the floor. It could also mean having to deal with thefts. Says Samir Parmar, a senior sales executive and tour manager with TCI: "Though they could be wealthy, they come from backgrounds where they haven't ever stayed in five-star hotels or even travelled by air." Agrees a senior SITA executive: "In the past, some people in our groups picked telephone instruments from hotel rooms. As a result, some hotels in the Far East refuse to host Indians. There are also complaints about people drying clothes on bed spreads and stealing toilet seats."

 New Park, a five-star hotel in Singapore, for instance, does not keep TV remotes. They furnish them on demand and the individuals have to sign a $50 credit, refundable on checkout.

There is also the logistics of vegetarian food. Says Parmar: "There were eight Jains in one of my groups who had to have no onion, no potato (it's grown underground and Jainism prohibits such diet) and no garlic. On such groups, we have to fly cooks."

 Indian names add to the confusion. On a recent incentive tour of L&T cement dealers, there were more than 15 Patels. Says Par-mar: "Sometimes, people land up with tickets which are not theirs. The only way to distinguish them is by initials. Some have the same initials too." Of course, the tale wouldn't be complete if it didn't include the Indian love for bargaining. Forty clients taken by a prestigious travel company wanted to visit a massage parlour in Pattaya. Says the tour manager: "The parlour's rate was 1,700 bahts per person. Certain people started bargaining that since they were 40, they were entitled to better rates!"