After the recent spate of horrific, widely reported sexual crimes — from
the Nirbhaya case in December last year to the rape of a Swiss tourist
in March — foreign travellers are becoming rather incredulous about
Incredible India.
Visitors are now coming armed not just with pointand-shoot cameras, but also bodyguards trained to do the same.
The last time 44-year-old Canadian-Indian Shaleni Nigam visited India was in 2008. She was confident then of travelling alone to visit her family in Kanpur and taking the train everywhere.
“But the gang rape in Delhi was terrifying and a couple of months ago, I read about the British tourist who had to jump out of her hotel window because the hotel manager was harassing her. That got me thinking about hiring a bodyguard for my trip this year,” says Nigam, who is looking for a female bodyguard.
Anuraag Singh, COO of security operations at Delhi’s Secura Security Solutions, says tourists are nervous enough to cough up around Rs 9,000 a day plus expenses for the services of an Englishspeaking licensed-to-shoot bodyguard.
Terror, isolated locales top fear factors Their fears range from terrorist attacks and cultural and religious minefields to hostile weather conditions and isolated locales. His company’s close protection officers are trained in special driving techniques, emergency first aid and etiquette.
Most of his clients are from the US and UK. “Many are high net-worth individuals who demand tight security services for their families, whether they are here for a destination wedding, a hiking trip to Ladakh, a visit to a fort in Jaipur or a beach vacation to Goa,” says Singh. “Though Goa is their favourite destination, it makes them especially jittery,” he adds.
Nimisha Ramesh, 27, who works with a Nevada-based IT firm, makes frequent trips to India, for both business and leisure.
“I don’t want to take any chances when I travel with a client, so I always take a bodyguard along. They are nervous because of the reports they have read about tourists being harassed,” says Ramesh.
Anubhav Khiwani, managing partner, Denetim Services in Gurgaon, says his clientele is mostly European. “If their itinerary has a lot of highway time, tourists prefer to have a bodyguard in the car, especially one who can converse in the local language and English,” says Khiwani.
While some clients only require the bodyguard to stay with them during the day, there are others who are so nervous that they book an extra room in their hotel for round-the-clock protection.
Khiwani who started his company earlier this year says tourists travelling to destinations in the north like the Himalayas, Agra and Jaipur are most anxious about security.
Some companies like Secura have gone the extra mile by tying up with tour companies. “Our bodyguard team includes local tourist experts,” says Singh.
Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/ChannelNews/National/NationalNews.aspx?news=TkVXUzEwMDA0MzU1Mw%3D%3D-W9dDe%2BwZ%2FXs%3D
Visitors are now coming armed not just with pointand-shoot cameras, but also bodyguards trained to do the same.
The last time 44-year-old Canadian-Indian Shaleni Nigam visited India was in 2008. She was confident then of travelling alone to visit her family in Kanpur and taking the train everywhere.
“But the gang rape in Delhi was terrifying and a couple of months ago, I read about the British tourist who had to jump out of her hotel window because the hotel manager was harassing her. That got me thinking about hiring a bodyguard for my trip this year,” says Nigam, who is looking for a female bodyguard.
Anuraag Singh, COO of security operations at Delhi’s Secura Security Solutions, says tourists are nervous enough to cough up around Rs 9,000 a day plus expenses for the services of an Englishspeaking licensed-to-shoot bodyguard.
Terror, isolated locales top fear factors Their fears range from terrorist attacks and cultural and religious minefields to hostile weather conditions and isolated locales. His company’s close protection officers are trained in special driving techniques, emergency first aid and etiquette.
Most of his clients are from the US and UK. “Many are high net-worth individuals who demand tight security services for their families, whether they are here for a destination wedding, a hiking trip to Ladakh, a visit to a fort in Jaipur or a beach vacation to Goa,” says Singh. “Though Goa is their favourite destination, it makes them especially jittery,” he adds.
Nimisha Ramesh, 27, who works with a Nevada-based IT firm, makes frequent trips to India, for both business and leisure.
“I don’t want to take any chances when I travel with a client, so I always take a bodyguard along. They are nervous because of the reports they have read about tourists being harassed,” says Ramesh.
Anubhav Khiwani, managing partner, Denetim Services in Gurgaon, says his clientele is mostly European. “If their itinerary has a lot of highway time, tourists prefer to have a bodyguard in the car, especially one who can converse in the local language and English,” says Khiwani.
While some clients only require the bodyguard to stay with them during the day, there are others who are so nervous that they book an extra room in their hotel for round-the-clock protection.
Khiwani who started his company earlier this year says tourists travelling to destinations in the north like the Himalayas, Agra and Jaipur are most anxious about security.
Some companies like Secura have gone the extra mile by tying up with tour companies. “Our bodyguard team includes local tourist experts,” says Singh.
Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/ChannelNews/National/NationalNews.aspx?news=TkVXUzEwMDA0MzU1Mw%3D%3D-W9dDe%2BwZ%2FXs%3D
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