Critical appraisal of aspect of information and communication infrastructure for tourist destination competitiveness of India and Singapore

Tourism today is a leisure activity of the masses. People today travel to international destinations to break the regular monotony of life. They are mainly attracted by either the scenic beauty of its nature or by fascinating leisure, sports and adventure activities offered by the destination. But the competitiveness of the destination is also affected by the quality of Information and Communication Infrastructure (ICT) factor of the destination. The paper makes an attempt to compare the competitiveness of India as well as Singapore on ICT issue. The foreign tourists’ perception of various variables of this attribute of Indian tourism industry is compared with that of Singapore tourism which are based on different articles of destination competitiveness, the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR) issued by World Economic Forum and also from various published media. Primary data through questionnaires containing 5 point Likert scale and secondary data from web resources and books are used in the paper. The findings show that Singapore is a better destination than India in terms of modern information and communication technology. These findings also coincide with the TTCI index 2011 in which on the pillar of ICT infrastructure Singapore is strongly placed on the 20^th position and India is on the 111^th position.