AP file photo

An American tourist gets a picture taken while holding one end of the moustache of Ram Nath Chowdhury in Pushkar, 257 miles northwest of the Indian capital, New Delhi. Travel to India from the U.S. increased 10 percent in 2007, on top of an 8 percent rise the year before.

AP file photo

A camel stands nearby as villagers walk at sunrise to the annual cattle fair in Pushkar, northern India.

AP file photo

Foreign tourists enjoy some downtime on the lawn of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, a must-see stop for most visitors.

NEW DELHI — Keith Lotman went to New Delhi on a two-week business trip, but a quick day of sightseeing in India's capital city left him enthralled and ready to see more of the country.

"I have about a hundred different places that I'd like to visit, a hundred different kinds of experiences," said Lotman, 31, a business executive from Philadelphia, as he checked out the world's largest Bahai temple in New Delhi.

He added: "It's very different from any place I've traveled to before, culturally very different. I'd definitely like to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal next."

Ever since The Beatles arrived on the banks of the Ganges River in the 1960s to study transcendental meditation, India has been on the life list of a certain type of traveler.

And while there are still are plenty of Westerners seeking low-budget Eastern spirituality, India has recently started attracting a different class of visitor, men and women like Lotman, who certainly wasn't spending his nights bunking in a dingy room with a bunch of backpackers.

More visitors every year

New tourists like Lotman have helped feed a boom in travel to India, and the country is now nearly as popular a destination for Americans as Spain. Travel to India from the United States increased 10 percent from 2006 to 2007, on top of an 8 percent rise the year before. More Americans visited India last year than went to Ireland or Thailand, according to the most recent data from U.S. Department of Commerce.

The upsurge is part of a broader boom in India's tourism industry. In 2007, some 5 million travelers headed to India, nearly double from 2000, according to the Tourism Ministry. Visitors from the U.S. accounted for 15.7 percent of the total.

These include a large number of business travelers, wealthy retirees out to explore India from the comfortable confines of an air-conditioned luxury bus or train, and people of Indian origin eager to see their parents' — or grandparents' — homeland.

What has made India as attractive as Europe or South America for American travelers is a combination of a booming economy, an aggressive marketing campaign and what the Tourism Ministry describes as "the diversity of our product."

Most international airlines fly into New Delhi, making it a natural first destination for visitors.

The city is more than a sleepy administrative center, and tourists can spend days gawking at the sprawling British colonial-era bungalows and exploring the crowded byways of Old Delhi, the capital of India's medieval Mogul rulers.

About 125 miles south — close enough for a day trip — is Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, the white-marble monument to love built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The monument, a must-see for most tourists, receives about 3 million visitors a year.

Some palatial hotels

A bit farther afield is Rajasthan, a region in western India famous for its fabulous splash of colors, medieval forts, ancient temples and camel safaris. There, visitors can spend a night in one of the myriad palaces that have been converted to hotels, getting waited on hand and foot, much like the maharajas of bygone days.

But The New-Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan circuit known as "The Golden Triangle" is just one corner of the country.

What might make India daunting — a vast, complicated country of 1.1 billion people where dozens of languages are spoken across an area of more than a million square miles — is also its biggest draw.

"There's the history and the spirituality that everyone knows about and then there's more," said Leena Nandan, a joint secretary in the Tourism Ministry. "We now have business travelers, medical travelers, luxury travelers, adventure tourism."

There are the hippie haunts of Varanasi and Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges, sacred to millions of devout Hindus; the all-night raves on the beaches of Goa, a slice of India once ruled by Portugal; the luxury resorts on the sparkling backwaters of the southern Kerala; the spartan yoga retreats and the bare-bones experience of Ayurvedic holistic healing in the Himalayas.

And then there are the many domestic airlines that have proliferated since India liberalized its economy. Even on the budget flights, meals are standard — and on the full-fare carriers, they are often accompanied by luxuriously embroidered cloth napkins, metal cutlery and friendly service.

Travelers may have to contend with the same kinds of flight delays found in the United States, but, said Gary Goodlin, who travels frequently on business between Chicago and Mumbai, "you couldn't get that kind of service on a low-cost airline in the U.S."

If you go

Getting there: Most international carriers fly in to the capital New Delhi. There are direct flights between New York and New Delhi and plenty of options between Los Angeles and New Delhi. Depending on when you fly (the peak season is November to early January) the price for an economy class round-trip ticket should run $1,200 to $2,000.

Where to go and what to do:

The Golden Triangle: For history buffs, New Delhi, Agra, and Rajasthan are a good start. There are several low-cost airlines connecting the Indian capital to Agra, as well Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur in Rajasthan. The cities are also well-connected by train and bus services.

Bodh Gaya: Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world flock to this town where the prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment after intense meditation and became the Buddha.

Dharamsala: The Himalayan town is home to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of millions of Tibetans Buddhists, and his government in exile. It's now also a major center for the study of Buddhist and Tibetan culture.

Goa: This former Portuguese colony is now a beach-lined tourist hot spot that attracts everyone from the hippie backpackers who come for the all-night beach parties to well-heeled travelers who come for the luxury hotels.

Kerala: Sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the tropical rain forests of the Western Ghats mountain range, Kerala is among India's most popular tourist spots. Millions of travelers head here each year for its Ayurvedic holistic resorts, beaches, tropical wildlife and a dance form called Kathakkali.