New Delhi, April 15 :    New Delhi, April 15:  'Incredible India', the new slogan launched to promote India as a tourist destination, not only sums up the diversity of experiences the country offers but also the contradictions and counterpoints that one encounters. At the inaugural ceremony, poet-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke in concrete, prosaic terms of developing joint, intra-regional tourism circuits. Eulogised by the programme announcer as the epitome of philosopher-king described by Plato, Vajpayee suggested a regional Buddhist circuit and said there was scope for developing a regional Ramayana circuit and a package that links centres of Sufi spiritualism in India with those in West Asia, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. The idea of designing joint tourism packages came to the Prime Minister from his Singapore counterpart Goh Chok Tong. He felt Pacific Asia Travel Association could act as a catalyst in this. Making a fervent plea against terrorism and extremism, Vajpayee invoked the positive role of tourism in this effort. 'Terrorism detests pluralism, whereas tourism pays tribute to it,' he said. The Prime Minister cautioned travel and tourism operators not to look at their business purely from the narrow angle of short-term commercial benefit and said excessive commercialism would lead to negative consequences. 'Excessive commercialism, especially when it takes place in the absence of effective regulatory mechanisms, can lead to negative consequences,' Vajpayee said. Stating that environmental degradation and erosion of traditional social values could make the growth of tourism unsustainable, he said India had examples of how some tourism centres suffered due to unplanned and unaesthetic growth. Turning to the challenges, Vajpayee said the travel and tourism industry, including the civil aviation industry, was badly hit after the September 11 terror strikes. 'We in India, being victims of terrorism for close to two decades, know all too well how it has adversely affected tourism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere,' he said. Unlike the Prime Minister, Union minister for tourism and culture Jagmohan and keynote speaker Dr Karan Singh took help of poetry. Jagmohan quoted T.S. Eliot on 'Time present and time past...' Karan Singh delved into Sanskrit and English poetry. There was some confusion about the keynote speaker. Earlier, former US President Bill Clinton accepted the invitation but later declined, citing personal reasons. Later, according to one report, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation, Francesco Frangialli, was slated to deliver the keynote address. Later, Dr Karan Singh, an eminent speaker, fitted the bill. Yesterday, Jagmohan had asserted that 'recent happenings in Gujarat are an aberration.' His contention was that India is a vast country and the Gujarat incidents will not affect tourism. However, tourism professionals differ. A tour operator of Indo-Asia Tours said that bookings for October and November had plummeted whereas they should have been on the rise. Even industry captains Subhash Chandra, Inder Sharma and Ravi Bhootalingam expressed their misgivings about Gujarat. But they agreed the Pata conference would help to restore confidence. One of the finest items in the inaugural ceremony was a programme of folk dance and music as well as some classical numbers like Kathakali, Mohini Attam and Chhau. The half-hour revue produced by Bansi Kaul was a great success. Even as Gujarat simmered, the Sidis of Gujarat, belonging to the Muslim community, enchanted the audience with their Dhamal dance. From Bengal, came the Raibeshe and Baul singers.