The Indian tourist is not a meme: Bad behaviour deserves criticism, not cultural stereotyping

  

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — the world is one family — is among India’s most popular civilisational ideas. When Indians step out into that world, the phrase cannot remain a decorative line for speeches and airport walls. It must travel with us as conduct. 

 

In recent days, social media has been full of clips that have embarrassed many Indians: tourists performing Garba on an airport tarmac in Vietnam, visitors allegedly littering in Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area, travellers making reels in places where restraint may have been more appropriate, and public discussions around Indians reportedly jumping queues or behaving loudly at landmarks in East Asia. A recent television discussion also brought together clips from China, Japan, and Vietnam to ask whether Indian tourists are becoming a global etiquette problem.

 

Let me say this frankly: I travel overseas almost every month, and nowhere is inappropriate behaviour excused in the name of culture. Respecting culture is important, but so is respecting public spaces and safety protocols. An airport tarmac is not a dance floor. A mountain conservation zone is not a picnic spot where one can leave plastic behind. A foreign country is not a film set for our personal reels. When we travel abroad, we carry not only our luggage but also, in a small but meaningful way, the dignity of the country whose passport we hold.

 

But there is another danger here, and it is equally important to resist. The poor conduct of a few Indian tourists cannot become a certificate against all Indian travellers. I strongly wish to state that a handful of viral clips must not be allowed to become a global verdict on 1.4 billion people. It is easy, in the age of social media, to turn an incident into an identity. That temptation must be resisted.

 

India must introspect. But the world must also be fair.

 

The traveller India has become

The Indian tourist today is not a minor figure in global travel. They are increasingly central to the economics of many destinations. Indians are travelling more, spending more, marrying abroad, attending global events, weddings, studying overseas, exploring food, wellness, wildlife, culture, and luxury in ways earlier generations could not have imagined.

 

India’s international travel spending reportedly rose 25 per cent in FY24 to Rs 2,72,176 crore. Millennials and Gen Z now form a major part of this movement, and destinations such as Thailand, UAE, USA, Vietnam, and Indonesia feature prominently in Indian travel choices. This is not a small footnote in global tourism. It is one of the great social changes of our time.

 

Countries know this very well. Thailand, for instance, is not looking at India as a nuisance market. It is looking at India as a growth engine. In 2025, Thailand reportedly welcomed about 2.49 million Indian visitors, generating 87,749 million baht in revenue. Its tourism authorities are actively targeting Indian “quality travellers”, including millennials, destination wedding groups, and wellness seekers.

 

Europe, too, is watching India carefully. With American travel showing signs of slowing, Indian and Chinese travellers are expected to help support growth in European tourism. Indian arrivals to Europe were projected to rise by 9 per cent in 2026, even as destinations increasingly focus on high-value, experience-led tourism.

 

The Indian passport is gradually gaining mobility, with India making one of the sharpest recent jumps in the Henley Passport Index ranking in 2025. The Indian destination wedding market abroad has also become a lucrative opportunity for tourism businesses, hotels, airlines, and event ecosystems. 

 

Culture is not a licence for chaos

At the same time, rising importance brings rising responsibility. There is a difference between cultural confidence and cultural carelessness.

 

India’s civilisational strength has never been noise. Instead, it has showcased refinement, hospitality, restraint, and the ability to adapt. Our oldest travel traditions taught us that when one enters another person’s home, shrine, or land, one does so with humility. Atithi devo bhava is not meant only for how we treat guests. It also implies how we behave when we are guests.

 

A traveller must learn three things before leaving home: the law of the land, the custom of the place, and the silence of the moment. There are places where celebration is welcome. There are places where one must lower the voice. There are places where photography is intrusive, where laughter can sound like mockery, where a casual gesture can wound a sacred space.

 

The world is not obliged to understand our excitement. We are obliged to understand its boundaries.

 

If Indian tourists are littering in Annapurna, shouting in museums, dancing in restricted zones or harassing hospitality staff, they must be called out. Not because foreigners are watching, but because dignity demands it.

 

Stereotyping is also bad manners

Yet the criticism must not become racism dressed as etiquette.

 

British and American tourists, travellers from China and Australia, even European backpackers have all been at the centre of ugly behaviour abroad. Thailand’s recent concerns are not about Indians alone. Reports from Thailand have spoken of badly behaved foreign tourists refusing to pay bills, brawling in streets, mistreating locals, and even engaging in indecent conduct in public spaces. Thailand’s visa tightening is expected to affect visitors from more than 60 countries.

 

There have also been recent reports of an Australian tourist causing outrage in Phuket, a Chinese passenger damaging an airport passport scanner in Bangkok, and foreign tourists in Bali facing anger over public disorder, illegal work, and disrespect for local customs.

 

Do we say all Australians are indecent because one Australian tourist misbehaves? Do we say all French travellers are immoral because one French couple behaves obscenely on a beach? Do we say all Chinese tourists are destructive because one passenger loses control at an airport gate? We do not. We treat the incident as an incident.

 

The same standard must apply to Indians.

 

It is worth remembering that foreign tourists have often behaved badly in India, too. Some enter temples without understanding sanctity, photograph poverty as spectacle, dress insensitively in sacred places, bargain abusively with artisans, and treat the East as a playground for spiritual consumption. Yet we do not reduce entire nations to those examples. We complain, correct, and move on.

 

The Indian tourist deserves the same fairness.

 

The passport and the mirror

The debate should not be about shame alone. Shame rarely reforms anyone. The better word is responsibility.

 

Before every foreign trip, perhaps we should ask ourselves a few simple questions. Do we know the basic rules of the country we are visiting? Do we understand the sanctity of its religious and cultural spaces? Are we leaving behind waste? Are we respecting queues? Are we treating hotel staff, drivers, cleaners, and shopkeepers with dignity? Are we creating a memory or merely manufacturing content?

 

The Indian state, travel companies, airlines, schools, and parents all have a role to play. Airlines can run short etiquette advisories. Travel agencies can share cultural guidance with group travellers. Destination wedding planners can brief guests. Schools can teach civic behaviour not as moral science but as global citizenship. Influencers can learn that virality without wisdom is reputational vandalism.

 

But we must also guard against self-hatred. There is a strange pleasure some people take in saying, “Only Indians behave like this.” It is simply not true. Bad tourism is now a global problem, sharpened by cheap flights, social media exhibitionism, over-tourism, and weak civic training. 

 

Thailand’s restrictions must not be read as global outrage against Indian tourists. They are part of a wider international debate about mass tourism, visa misuse, cultural disrespect, illegal business activity, and the pressure visitors place on local societies. To turn that into “the world is angry with Indians” is both inaccurate and unnecessarily defeatist. If so, why are these countries banning Indian tourists? The fact is that Indian travellers today contribute billions of dollars to tourism-dependent economies across the globe. 

 

India is travelling because India is rising. That rise will bring admiration and scrutiny. Both must be accepted with maturity.

 

The answer is not to stop travelling. The answer is to travel better.

 

The Indian tourist is not a meme. Nor should they become a menace. Instead, increasingly, the Indian tourist is one of the ambassadors of a changing and shining India. 

This article was published in The Daily Guardian