Introduction In 1982, the Indian Government presented its first tourism policy. In retrospect one could argue that the novely of the subject, its low priority and the belief in its potential as a social engineering tool (in keeping with Indian public ideology at that time), contributed to a rather simplistic piece of work. It took the government until 2002 to present an updated policy document. Those expecting a clear line of thinking and plan must have been quite disappointed by the new policy. It is based on a number of incompatible perspectives, of which those of the international development community and the international lobby group of tourism and travel related industries (the WTTC) are the most pronounced. As a result, it starts from the idea that tourism is both a threat and an engine of growth. By means of this paper, we want to focus on some of the central ideas and starting points of the Indian tourism policy. We will argue that there is something fundamentally wrong with the public ideas concerning the economic (growth) potential of (international) tourism and the role of tourism as a development tool. We will also contend that, even after all these years of tourism development, very little is known on who the tourists in India actually are and what they want. Our reflections are based on our own experience as tour operators and travel guides in India as well as on our (limited) reading of public documents and research papers. As research scholars, our fields of specialisation lie elsewhere. Nonetheless we think that our observations could provoke a fruitful discussion on central policy issues.