I’m staying in Vietnam since 3 years. So I think I’m qualified to answer this.

1. Safety of you, your loved ones and your belongings. Never have an ever lost anything in Vietnam. In fact the taxi drivers are so honest that they call you back and return your items even before you noticing anything. It is never the case in India. Honesty in India becomes big news which is the norm in this part of the world.
2. Everyone is time conscious and punctual. Even if something is not on time, the information is shared well in advance.
3. Tourists and expats are treated as royalty. Here people know that a positive impression on one foreigner is a chain reaction to get a thousand more.
4. Tourists are not cheated and exploited. In fact, sometime you get additional benefits for being a foreigner. It is never the case in India. Athithi Devo Bhava is followed in actual terms in this part of the world.
5. Everything is so clean and tidily maintained. People take pride in showcasing a clean Vietnam. 🇻🇳
6. People are humble and hardworking. They expect the payment for what they offer. Not a dime more.
7. My eight year old travels alone in bike taxis without any worries. Kids are taken very good care of.
8. The maids are gold. They get paid on hour basis. In this time they support every house help. No complaints whatsoever. They do the work with full sincerity. If their work gets over earlier they find some work like ironing clothes, washing the shoes and so on. But never sit idle and take the money.
9. A small minority of Indian tourists behave like crap looking at the beautiful Vietnamese women, don’t follow basic rules, run around and shout like crazy. Because of people like them the entire Indian community gets a bad name.

These are just some observations from me. My wife is a huge fan of Vietnam. The country and its people are so amazing.

This part of the world is much much better than the western world.

Picture of the iconic train street in Hanoi.

Edit : The comment section has started filling up with a lot of hatred to India. This is really not my intention of writing this answer. Please don’t generalise anything and everything about India. We have good people in India as well. I’ve just answered from my observation.

The Bottom to Top approach is key to a successful tourism model

The Top to Bottom approach never works when it comes to establishing a successful tourism model

While the National Government can support tourism initiatives, only Local Governments can develop tourism and promote tourism

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I notice you said Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia

However it is not Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesia is it?

It is in fact Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Bali or Batam, am I correct?

How many have heard of Chiang Mai?Kanchanaburi? Bandung? Surabaya?

Tourism is always Destination oriented, not Nation or Country oriented

Kenya is a country that has certainly seen better days but the Masai Mara Safaris attract top dollar tourists

Egypt is unsafe to a great extent and very few people would want to travel to places like Port Said but Giza attracts top dollar tourists to see the Pyramids

Very few people know where Utrecht or Eindhoven are but Amsterdam is a place tourists always want to go for the ‘experience’

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For the smaller countries like Singapore or Maldives, a National Government can effectively initiate and develop a tourism policy

As the Size of a country increases, localized decision making becomes critical and more local autonomy is critical

At the local level, there must be tailor made laws unique to the destination, tailor made legal exemptions, tailor made tax rules – all applicable to that destination per se which allows the destination to market itself to tourists and financial freedom

Las Vegas for instance has so many of its own laws that don’t apply outside it’s boundaries

Reno in Nevada became unique for a Six week residence and a quickie divorce which could take upwards of 8 months in a place like Frisco or LA

Tourist Destinations have different tax obligations

Tourist Destinations have VAT and GST refunds for tourists on purchases

Tourists Destinations have a different policy on Stripteasing and Sex than the general country

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India is the polar opposite

A Heavy handed Central and State Government pursue a top down approach

Local Governments are powerless and Local Destinations have no tailor made advantages either legally or in terms of taxation

Local Governments lack financial freedom. They cannot even negotiate investments on their own.

Local Governments lack the power to have tailor made laws specifically catering to tourist based freedom

India has the same taxation policy in Delhi, Bangalore, Ooty, Conoor or Darjeeling

Without more participation of the Local Governments and tweaking the laws , investment rules , and tax codes – they cannot attract tourists

In India, if I were to invest into a tourist destination, the clearances are necessary from the State Government or Central Government which are miles away and might not understand the significance of such an investment

Politics plays a role too , the usual ‘Dirty’ nature of India

If the Local Government governing a possible destination comes from a political party which is not the same as the one governing the State or Central Government, then there will be blowbacks

Lakshadweep was pitched as a replacement for Maldives but it’s governance is by a political party that is identified as ‘Opposition’ and as such the replacing Maldives part has fizzled away

Lakshadweep needs a Central Government for increased connectivity, for deciding which overseas investments can be approved and to handle its own tourism revenue and decide how such revenue can be used to further promote or develop the tourism model

This top heavy approach is a major buzz kill

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India needs a bottom to top approach and a high degree of flexibility to the local governments in charge of specific destinations to tailor make their own policies within their boundaries and give them sufficient local autonomy when it comes to investments and revenue collection and reinvestment

If everything is decided by a Central or State Government and if everything is Political, India like in all other areas will also fail in Tourism

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Since India is a huge country, Tourism per se doesn’t have a significant fiscal impact , enough for India to initiate these reforms

It is essentially more of a matter of pride and honor than Gross Domestic Product boosting for the first few years to build and develop any tourist destination

And India has very little pride or honor if you would pardon me for saying so😊

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I am Australian and I have visited India, Indonesia, and Thailand. I may be able to give a little insight.

1. the most important thing to attract tourist is the promotion. I think India, despite of how rich the country with its landscape, natural sites, historic buildings, and customs, there are very lack of tourism promotion here in Australia. Maybe in other countries too. Meanwhile, Thailand and Indonesia has been promoting their country a lot in so many different purposes, including tourism overseas. Garuda Indonesia as the flag carrier of Indonesia, has their “Visit Indonesia” promotion logo imprinted on every of their aircrafts. Late addition: the visa is ridiculously expensive, while Thailand, Vietnam and The Philippines are visa free, and Indonesia visa is only a cost of two portions of MacDonalds meal.
2. cleanliness is a huge issue in India. Imagine tourists wandering around Agra, they have to share spaces/roads/pathways/building with rats as big as cat, cockroaches. Not only that, they have to share spaces with pigs and their shit everywhere, cows that roaming around freely and shits everywhere, goat, donkey, horses, even elephants are roaming around freely with no control whatsoever. This issue needs to be addressed if India wishes to have a lot more visitors like Thailand or Indonesia.
3. safety and security is a shitty reality in India. I have been scammed by taxi company while I’m visiting Delhi. We book taxi online and prepaid our trip from Agra to Delhi, we even called the company operator to make sure there’s no hidden charge that will surprise me. We get the taxi alright, but in the middle of the trip, the driver stopped the car and asking for 2000 rupees cash to me said he needs to fill the tank because he doesn’t have cash in hand. We told him, we prepaid everything so we shouldn’t pay anything else like petrol. He was just easily say “then we cannot continue the trip if the tank is empty”. So I called the company again, the operator was saying “The taxi needs the gas in order to run, if he doesn’t have cash, just give him the amount he asked”. This kind of scam is a serious matter to the safety of tourist, and I’ve just been told by my Indian friends when we’re back in Australia that never ever get taxi in India. Best to use Uber. Whatabout people who doesn’t have that information before they travel?

I have good friends of Indian origin, plus one of my private charter driver when I was in Jaipur has been nothing less than a wonderful Indian guy. But that doesn’t mean I would come back to visit India again. At least not until those animal are caged or sent away to where they belong. Or until it proven the people could respect each other among religion groups who all live in India, the Hindu could respect other minority group of religion like Islam and Christianity. Or for sure I will never visit India again until the safety of visitors are improving significantly.

until then, I dont think it is worthy to spend money for an expensive visa just to get scammed and landed on animal shit wherever you try to take a step.

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The Taj Mahal is a beautiful monument to visit.

Let’s say you are dropped at this spot in the picture below, and told that you have to wade through this garbage and swamp to reach the Taj Mahal. Will you do it?

Visiting the many wonderful sights of India feels similar to that for foreigners. It may not feel that way to us Indians because either we know a way around, or we are used to such adventures.

Many Indians prefer travelling to south-east Asia (e.g. Thailand, Bali, Singapore) for holiday compared to touring places within India. It is often even cheaper if the place to visit in India needs a flight to reach from where you live. Why should we expect foreigners to be different in their choices?

Whose house do you visit to hang out and have fun? Someone who is very poor and probably has an unfurnished house? (Have you ever visited your driver’s or maid’s house, who are not even very poor by Indian standards?) Or, do you prefer hanging out with people whose status is not terrible compared to yours? India’s per capita income is around half that of Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines, and roughly one-third that of Thailand. South East Asia is poorer than the West, but the poverty is not as in-your-face as it is in India.

As Indians, we are used to unhygienic food, touts trying to cheat us, bad traffic, unending crowds with no personal space, the heat, the dust, the pollution, and most importantly, the harassment faced by women on our streets. For foreigners, all these things are needless adventures that spoil a vacation whose primary intention is to relax.

For foreigners to have fun in India, they have to be provided regimented plans where everything in the itinerary is well-planned and pre-arranged, and there are no deviations. There is only so much capacity in terms of infrastructure to make that happen. And it will cost a lot, which means the foreigner has many more options at that price rather than come to India.

I would like to welcome many more foreign tourists to come to India. But I will only invite them after I set my house in order. I don’t want to have guests come over and then make them feel uncomfortable.