India's share in international tourist arrivals, which was 0.34% in 2002, is expected to reach 1.5% by 2010 and is forecasted to generate $42.8 bn by 2017. Indian government is putting in a lot of effort to revamp the Indian tourism industry. The states of Rajasthan, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have promoted their tourist spots on a worldwide basis. Other tourist destinations like Amritsar, Kurukshetra, Salasar and Khatushyam ji are also coming up as acclaimed tourist spots. In the present study, an attempt has been made to determine which factors are considered more important by tourists while selecting their destination. Seven factors have been extracted by factor analysis, and ANOVA has been used to check their relationships with the demographic variables. A model has been established to predict customer satisfaction on the basis of the factors obtained.

Travel and tourism in India has now become a significant industry which provides employment to about 41.8 million people (Chopra, 2008). Its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 6.0% ($67.3 bn) in 2009 and is expected to be $187.3 bn by 2019. The recent "Indian Tourism Industry Forecast (2007-2011)" mentions that in India, inbound tourist expenditure per head is third highest in the world, even more than the global average tourist spending, and tourist influx to India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 22.65% between 2007 and 2011. According to the Ministry of Tourism, during the month of March 2009, Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) were 472,000 and the decline in FTAs may be mainly due to the ongoing global financial meltdown. FTAs during January-March 2009 were at 1.461 million.

India's share in international tourist arrivals, which was 0.34% in 2002, has increased to 0.49% during 2005 and is expected to reach 1.5% by 2010. According to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 brought out by the World Economic Forum, India is ranked 11^th in the Asia-Pacific region and 62^nd overall in a list of 133 assessed countries in 2008, up three places since 2007.

Brand Management Journal, Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Foreign Tourist Arrivals, FTAs, Research Methodology, Demographic Variables, Tourism Marketing, Global Economic Crisis, Global Financial Meltdown, Psychological and Physical Environment, Indian Tourism Industry, Socioeconomic Status.