India’s celebrated travel and tourism writers, the first and who remain unique even now, recall the journalism scene in the last fifty years, through how this magazine and its publisher have progressed within the industry.

Travel writers
On the 1st of January 1974, we got premature retirement from the Indian Navy. We were not sure what we were going to do, but since Colleen wanted to travel and Hugh wanted to write we felt that travel writing was the right option. To us, travel writing was a way of communicating with people the basic attractions of a place. Not its hotels, its restaurants and other add-ons, but the lifestyles of its people in response to the challenges of their environment. This, however, seemed to attract the attention of the existing travel magazines in India. They were all, or they appeared to be all the mouthpieces of the commercial interests that prevailed in that destination. “Yatri” focused heavily on the facilities offered by the ITDC. “Signature” was the Diners Club magazine. The Taj and Oberoi group of hotels had their own magazines. To us, however, these did not do very much to emphasise the manner in which the people of that destination had reacted to their environment.
In our opinion, humans travel because they have a genetic compulsion to do so. One in five people have a variation of the DRD4 gene. This “wanderlust gene” has a repeated DNA sequence that can occur 2 to 11 times. People with 7 or more repeats (called 7R+) are more likely to seek new experiences like travel and exploration. In other words, you don’t have to induce people to travel, all that you need to do is open the doors and the wanderlust gene will do the rest.
Shortly after we left the Indian Navy, we found a magazine which did exactly that and nothing else. We had wandered into a bookstore in Ernakulam, Kerala and one of us spotted a most unusual publication. It seemed to be cyclostyled though we are now informed that it was really printed. However, the very fact that it gave the impression that it was manually duplicated made it stand out amid the other glossy publications. This was one of the earliest editions of Destination India. It dealt with that ever-popular state, Rajasthan.
Today, 50 years later, we have still not been told by Navin Berry if his manner of reproducing DI was a clever strategy or a sheer necessity. But the bottom line is, that ever since then, Navin Berry has continued to be a pioneer in the travel press of India. This could not have been easy because his competitors had the power of big businesses behind them.
But if this gives the impression that big businesses brought tourism to India, this is far from the truth. It was Jawahar Lal Nehru who saw the high potential of the tourism industry. The erudite and well-travelled Nehru realised that the British had projected India as a land of snake charmers and dancing girls. He needed to break this image. He believed that if he brought UNESCO to hold one of its sessions in India, the international image of India would change. To entice UNESCO to India, he needed a good conference hall and hotel facilities to match the expectations of the UNESCO delegates. Vigyan Bhavan and the Ashoka Hotel reflecting the best of Indian cultural values in their architecture welcomed the UNESCO delegates. The world began to see India as a remarkable tourism destination.
But for this change in the attitude of people towards tourism to trickle down to the average Indian, it took over a generation. From being viewed as a frivolous activity, over the next 20 years, it gradually began to gain respectability. State Government budgets for tourism increased and inch by inch big business moved in. Hotel chains, airlines, travel agencies and tour operators grew. India had become a significant player in the tourism scene.
This was the setting in which Navin Berry launched his magazine Destination India. By not pegging the magazine to individual commercial interests he was able to bring out the benefits of tourism to the common man. Navin had clearly hit a sweet spot as over the next few years, several other publications tried to copy Destination India. Navin, however, continued to ride the crest of the wave by moving from his small office in Connaught Place to larger premises.
In 1994, the trailblazing urge caused Navin to launch his next venture, SATTE – the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange. It was an exhibition in which tourism organisations from all over India and also South Asia displayed their products and services. This travel mart was a huge success, it went on every year and in 2012, Berry exited, selling the product to another organisation.
Navin has a nimble mind. It moves swiftly to anticipate events and react to them. The very fact that the apparently cyclostyled Destination India has evolved from print to glossy and now digital is proof of his agility. And now there is the rumour that Navin is talking to Musk to ferry DI to Mars!
Hugh and Colleen Gantzer were the first travel writers in our country. Literally, the first. Started at a time when you could scarcely come across an article or two on travel or tourism, every other month. Since then, they forayed into television journalism, wrote extensively for us, and others, too, sporadically; more so, wrote for The Hindu and Indian Express. They wrote extensively on industry affairs, were feared for their honesty and sheer doggedness to write what they felt. Were regular invitees to travel and tourism industry conventions like TAAI and FHRAI.
Colleen passed on a few months ago, falling to old age. Hugh continues his passion for writing, like this column, written in their joint names, as the trademark goes. When Hugh approached me that he would like to write on our rejuvenated magazine, I was somewhat embarrassed with its contents, but on sober thought, it looked like a record of our times, the last 50 years, in travel and tourism reporting. Happy reading!
– The Editor