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Atithi Devo Bhavah is a Sanskrit verse, taken from an ancient Hindu scripture which became part of the "code of conduct" for Hindu society. Atithi devo bhav regards a procedure of the Host-Guest relationship. Recently it has also become the tag line of India's Ministry of Tourism's campaign to improve the treatment of tourists in India. The verse is from the Taittiriya Upanishad, who says "Matru devo bhava, Pitru devo bhava, Acharya devo bhava, Atithi devo bhava". It literally means The Mother is God, the Father is God, the Teacher is God the guest is God." Tithi in Sanskrit denotes a (calendrical) date. In ancient times, when means of communication were limited and it was not possible for guests to anticipate their date of arrival, "atithi" was coined to depict a visiting person who had no fixed date of arrival or leave. Atiti devo bhava is one such initiative which asks the people of this nation to understand their origin and to express and exert their differences, both religiously and culturally, in an attractive and inviting manner so that people from the outside get smitten by the beauty of our land and its people.

Effectiveness of the campaign:-

By Cost

The campaign wise cost break up shows the highest amount i.e. 24% of the total campaign expenditure was spent on the Atithi Devo Bhava social awareness campaign followed by 22% of the total on a regional campaign viz Northeast Campaign.

By Reach

The graph highlights that the social awareness campaign called Atithi devo bhava had the highest reach of 47% followed by Northeast Campaign with a reach of 39%. The reach was lowest in case of Central India Campaign at 10% of the target population.

By efficiency

The comparison between the advertising expenditure with reach of the campaign shows that the Atithi devo bhava campaign, Buddhist Campaign and Northeast regional campaign were more efficient.

Present position and trend of business (import/export) with India/Gujarat during last 3-5 years
The tourism industry is one of the most profitable industries in India and is also credited with contributing a substantial amount of foreign exchange. It is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and 8.78% to the total employment in India. What happens when a nation, known for its Atithi Devo Bhava outlook, turns out to be a hub of international hotel chains and food and beverage (F&B) outlets? Simple, there is a demand for trained and qualified hospitality professionals.

There are, at present, only about 1.20 lakh rooms in the country. An estimated shortage of 80,000 rooms exists which needs to be bridged immediately. A huge investment of over Rs 32,000 crore is required in the next three to five years to construct these guestrooms even after taking into consideration approximately 50,000 rooms which are under various stages of implementation and would be added to the market in the next three to four years. Thus, it is estimated that demand will continue to exceed supply by 100 per cent in the next five years.

It is noteworthy that even with a meager size of million foreign tourist arrivals in the country and with a sizeable domestic tourist market, the tourism sector employs as high as 49.8 million people. This makes it one of the highest employment generators in the country at about 9.8 per cent of the total employment generated.

In its representation to the government, the industry has been emphasizing the fact that if certain procedures are streamlined, such as extension of the visa-on-arrival scheme, the FTAs could easily go up from six million to the targeted 10 million by 2015 and 20 million by 2020.

Currently, there are 387 colleges offering courses in hospitality and tourism segment which are affiliated to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), with a total of 1.12 lakh students enrolled annually in these institutes. The opportunities in the hospitality industry are enormous. Out of this, 11 per cent are in the managerial category, 13 per cent in the supervisory category and 76 per cent comprise of staff members.

Hence, the requirements of degree or diploma holders are 16 per cent in managerial category, 40 per cent in supervisory category, and 44 per cent as staff members. Therefore, since the hotel industry accounts for about 85 per cent of the employment for the hospitality and tourism management graduates, it is observed that there is an additional demand of 15,000 trained persons in the various hotels in India.

India's hospitality sector has been generating interest in a variety of segments like meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, wellness tourism and spiritual & pilgrimage tourism, apart from the traditional business or leisure travel. The demand is notable in both foreign as well as domestic market.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India in 2011 was 6.31 million which was up from the previous years figure of 5.78 million and 5.17 million arrivals in 2009. Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi also said that the working group on tourism for the 11th fiveyear plan had set a target of 10 million international visitors by 2011. He also said that the foreign exchange earnings in India through tourism during 2010, 2011 and January to October 2012 were Rs 64,889 crore, Rs 77591 crore and Rs 74,215 crore respectively.