TOURISM
TOURISM AS A
MEANS TO FASTER, MORE INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
1.It has better
prospects for promoting pro-poor growth than many other sectors. This is because
tourism involves a collection of activities, services and
industries comprising transportation, accommodation, eating and drinking
establishments, retail shops, entertainment businesses and other hospitality
services provided to individuals or groups traveling away from home for
leisure, business or other purposes.
2. The broad
scope of economic activities involved enables wide participation in its growth,
including participation by the informal sector.
3.Tourism is
also highly dependent upon natural capital (for example, forest, wildlife) and
culture and these are assets that some of the poor have, even if they have no
financial resources.
4.For all these
reasons, across the world, the tourism industry is one of the largest
generators of employment. In India, the travel and tourism sector is estimated
to create 78 jobs per million rupees of investment as compared to 45 in the
manufacturing sector.
5.The role of
tourism in promoting inclusive growth was also recognized in the meeting of
Heads of States of G-20 countries held in June 2012 in Mexico.
While Tourism
is important for both growth and employment generation, it must also be sustainable.
The World
Tourism Organization (WTO) has defined sustainable tourism as ‘leading to management of all resources in such a way that
economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining
cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and
life support systems.’
In 1992, the
‘Earth Summit’ in Rio established the triple principles of environmental,
economic and social sustainability. Since then, the principles of
sustainable tourism have been adopted by the tourism industry worldwide.
Tourism in
India has the potential to create economic interest of local communities in the
protection of its natural and cultural endowments leading to a more sustainable
growth.
The annual growth of the Tourism sector is estimated
to be 8.1 per cent during the last five years.
Under the businessas-
usual scenario, the tourism sector is forecasted to grow by 8.8
per cent per annum during the period 2011–21 even though, according to the World
Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism in India has the highest 10-year
growth potential in the World during 2009–18.
The expected
growth of the tourism sector is, therefore, inadequate both in terms of its contribution
to the overall economic growth and its potential.
The approach to tourism in the Twelfth Plan must focus on achieving a
substantially higher growth rate than the aggregate growth rate envisaged so as
to provide a cushion against any shortfall in other sectors.
REVIEW OF
ELEVENTH PLAN
For the Eleventh Five Year Plan (FYP), the vision
for the tourism sector was ‘to achieve a superior quality of life through
development and promotion of tourism through a multi-pronged strategy, that
is,
(i) Position
and maintain tourism development as a national priority. In
spite of this, the global ranking of India in respect
of ‘Government Prioritization
of the Travel and Tourism Industry’ declined from
59 in 2006 to 80 in 2010.2
(ii) Improve and
expand the development of product and infrastructure for destination/circuits.
This was sought
to be achieved through the centrally-sponsored scheme ‘Product/Infrastructure
Development for Desti nation and Circuits’ (PIDDC). In
spite of these initiatives, the global ranking of the level of tourism infrastructure
in India (measured by the number of hotel rooms, number of ATMs accepting visa
cards and the presence of major car rental companies) improved only
marginally from 96 in 2006 to 89 in 2010.
(iii) Develop and
implement an effective programme for marketing of brand ‘Incredible India’.
While both
central and State Governments allocated a significantly large proportion of
their plan outlay on tourism on marketing and social awareness campaigns, the effectiveness
of the marketing strategy is questionable. The global ranking of India in respect
of ‘Effectiveness of Marketing and Branding’ declined from
59 in 2006 to 63 in 2010.
(iv) Build capacity
of service providers in the tourism sector.
The Central
Government launched a scheme to create and upgrade adequate institutional
infrastructure for training and certification of manpower resources;
(v) To
enhance and maintain India’s competitiveness as a tourism destination.
During the
Eleventh Plan period, the global ranking of India in the Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness Index improved from 65 in 2006 to 62 in 2008 and thereafter
fell to 68 in 2010 due to increase in out-bound Indian tourists from 8.34
million in 2006 to 12.07 million in 2010.
TARGET
FOR TWELFTH PLAN
19.43. The
T&T Competitiveness Report5 ranks India at 12th in the Asia Pacific region
and 68th overall, out of 139 countries in the Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness Index for 2011 down six places since the Index of 2009.
India is well assessed for its natural
resources (ranked 8th) and cultural resources (24th), with many World Heritage
sites, both natural and cultural, rich fauna, many fairs and exhibitions, and
strong creative industries.
India also has quite good air transport
(ranked 39th), particularly given the country’s stage of development, and reasonable
ground transport infrastructure (ranked 43rd).
However, some
aspects of its tourism infrastructure remain underdeveloped (ranked 89th), with
very few hotel rooms per capita by international comparison and low ATM
penetration.
Another area of
concern is the policy environment, which is now ranked 128th, with much time
and cost for starting a business, bilateral Air Service Agreements that are not
assessed as open, and visas required for most visitors.
Other areas
requiring attention are health and hygiene standards (112th) and the country’s
human resources base (96th). It is imperative to point out that India has the
advantage of a strong domestic tourism base which is likely to further grow on
the back of a rapidly rising middle class with increased disposable incomes and
awareness.
However, much of
the domestic tourism is ‘low end’ and the challenge is to persuade ‘high end’
domestic tourists to substitute domestic tourism for foreign tourism by upgrading
the tourism related infrastructure and the quality of tourism services.
In spite of low rankings on the
Competitiveness scale, India can leverage its higher ranking in certain
categories to exploit its tourism potential over the next decade with proper
planning. This potential, exploited in an intelligent and sustainable manner,
can prove to be the proverbial engine of growth for India. This can be achieved
only with active cooperation from the States/UTs.
The approach to
tourism in the Twelfth Plan must focus on achieving a substantially higher
annual growth rate of 12 per cent in the value addition in the tourism sector
during the Twelfth Five Year Plan. The strategy for promoting tourism should be
re-oriented to increase the employment elasticity in the tourism sector to the
international level. Further, India should strive to be amongst the top 50
countries in the Travel
and Tourism Competitiveness Rankings by the terminal year of the Twelfth Five Year
Plan and increase the share of India to 1 per cent in
Global foreign tourist arrivals.
STRATEGY
FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM DURING TWELFTH PLAN
The traditional approach to tourism
development is a direct result of an extremely open and deregulated world
economic environment. This approach is characterised by inequity in
redistribution of economic benefits. Over the last two decades, new
non-traditional approaches like eco-tourism which are concerned more with
ecological and cultural conservation than poverty reduction have become
popular.
The aim is more
on minimizing costs on people’s lives rather than bringing benefits to them.
The approach for development of tourism in the Twelfth
Five Year Plan should be re-oriented to eliminate poverty.
The Approach
Paper to the Twelfth Plan released by the Planning Commission lays
down the overall strategy for enabling tourism to realise its potential.
It emphasises the need to adopt a ‘propoor tourism’ approach aimed at
increasing the net benefits to the poor from tourism and ensure that tourism
growth contributes to poverty reduction.
The benefits
may be economic, social, environmental or cultural. For this purpose, the
Approach Paper identified the need for developing a comprehensive set of
strategies for a diversity of actions, from micro to macro level, including
product and infrastructure development, marketing, branding and promotion, planning,
policy and investment and increasing the spread of benefits to the weaker
sections. It also prescribes
that the ‘principal strategy’ to realize the tourism potential of India’s
enormous assets, namely historical sites, places of religious significance, and
its vast range of national attractions, must be to focus on developing clusters
or circuits around such assets. The development of these clusters/circuits requires
collaboration between many agencies at the local level to create an attractive
and safe transit
experience.
Therefore, development of tourism requires
that States take a leading role in developing their own tourism potential to
obtain growth in employment
as well as State Domestic Product.
Pro-poor tourism is increasingly becoming popular
but there are not many places in the world where this initiative has been
effectively implemented in line with pro-poor tourism principles. In 2006, the
Kerala Department of Tourism proactively decided to make the state tourism
policies more ‘propoor’ through the framework of Responsible Tourism (RT) Initiative.
Under this initiative, development of tourism in Kumarakom
was taken up as a pilot destination. The initial phase was characterised by local
farm land being converted into tourism infrastructure, reduction in
agricultural production and increase in wage income of the local workers from the
hectic pace of construction activity. However, it soon became apparent that the
gap between the tourism industry and the local population was rapidly widening. Most
villagers eventually got into financial difficulties after losing their land
and no meaningful skills with which to operate tourism activities. Eventually
it became apparent that the local people in Kumarakom were not benefitting from
the new tourism businesses. While many job opportunities were created with the
opening of hotels and restaurants, they could not be availed by the local people since
the local wages were substantially higher than those in other parts of the
country.
Besides, the
locals in Kumarakom became victims of the tourism industry in many other
different ways. Villagers’ lifestyle and occupations were closely related to
the canals, bays, lakes and shores in the area that have been using for
fishing, collecting shells, or as a mean of transportation. However, many
resort-owners closed the access to lakes and tourists’ need for privacy and tranquillity.
In addition,
resorts
increasingly operated tourist cruises in the backwaters by motorboats, which
have considerably damaged the fishing nets used by local fishermen.
The first objective was to revive the
agricultural sector in Kumarakom. The Department of Tourism sought the help of
Kudumbashree, the Panchayat and Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies
(KITTS) to conduct a survey and analysis of the possibility of linking the
local population with the tourism businesses and market. For this purpose, first,
KITTS identified the most vulnerable groups, that is, families of farmers
living below the poverty line and the local producers who had difficulty in
accessing the market to sell their produce.
In addition,
KITTS researchers conducted a survey of the hotels and restaurants to establish
their exact requirement for fruits and vegetables. Based on the survey results,
the Destination Level Responsible Tourism Committee (DLRTC) cell prepared an
agricultural
calendar for
the supply of produce to the hotels, that is, what should be cultivated and
when, and the overall amount that will be needed by the hotels. This process
made it possible for the local self-government to establish the link between
the local farmers and the hotels.
The farmers and
tourism business owners now enjoy a healthy working relation. The RT initiative
in Kumarakom has reached 1350 direct beneficiaries through this agricultural
project.
One year after the initiation of the RT in Kumarakom,
new projects were developed to enable local people to access the tourism market
and benefit from it. A link between several tourist hotels and some local
artists was established whereby, the hotels agreed to buy products, services or
performances from two handicraft units, one women’s cultural group performing
Thiruvathirakaly (traditional Kerala dance art), and one women’s painting
group.
Besides
providing additional income for the art performers, this project also enables
the promotion and conservation of the traditional art forms from Kerala, and
avoids the usual cultural breakdown that happens when tourism is developing in
a destination.
In July, 2009,
a new initiative called the ‘Village Life
Experience @ Kumarakom’ was launched.
Under this
initiative, the tourists are taken around villages to have a real experience of
the village life where they can enjoy a visit to a fish farm; vegetables and
fruits farm, duck farm, paddy fields, and can also learn a bit about the
traditional fishing techniques.
The cost for a
half-day trip is about `1000 and the amount of money
earned is equally divided among the villagers who participate in the tour.
Further, there is also a very special role for
women in the Responsible Tourism initiatives and projects. In co-operation with
Kudumbashree, 760 women are included in the cultivation programme, 35 in retail
activities, 30 in art and cultural groups, and 45 in the village tour group.
This is an important step toward women empowerment in Kumarakom; these groups
of women are now participants in decision
making for the
programme. In such a way, a carefully managed tourism industry can help the poor
rural women to become increasingly empowered, improve their status in their
families and within the society.
In view of the above, a ‘pro-poor tourism’ approach
should be adopted for development of tourism and furthering the objectives of
the Twelfth Plan. The goal of ‘pro-poor tourism’ is to bring net benefit to the
poor and marginalised through tourism activities thereby, eliminating poverty.
The means to achieve this goal is to expand the opportunities for them through
capacity building and transfer of skills in
close co-operation with the education and training sector and microfinance
institutions.
‘Pro-poor
tourism’ has a holistic notion of poverty alleviation. Non-economic benefits
are as important as economic gains. An improved management approach of the
tourism industry can provide new skills, better access to education and health
care, improving access to clean water and transportation networks. Intangible
benefits may also be provided such as access to information, opportunities to
communicate
with the
outside world, increased access to market opportunities, strengthening the
community institutions and structures, and enhancing community pride.
‘Pro-poor Tourism’ is essentially about
redistribution of resources and opportunities and not just the creation of a
new tourism product. Therefore, a proactive interventionist approach is needed
from the governments in order to effectively realise the objective of the
concept. Since the poor and marginalized communities do not have the avenues to
negotiate with tourism companies, the authorities have
the
responsibility to advocate for and promote their interests. Governments need to
change their policies and create new ones that cater for the needs of the
marginalised within the tourism industry framework.
Without such
actions at the macro level, ‘propoor tourism’ may remain a niche market without
addressing the larger picture of poverty reduction objective.
The ‘pro-poor tourism’ approach comprises of
practical strategies based on the principles underlying the approach. These
practical strategies essentially focus on three core areas: increased economic benefits, positive non-economic impacts,
and policy/ process reform.
In each area three distinct (but often overlapping)
methods can be identified.
1.The
increased economic benefits can
be achieved by
(i)
expanding business opportunities for the poor;
(ii) expanding
employment opportunities for the poor; and
(iii)
enhancing collective benefits.
Business
opportunities for the poor can be expanded by enabling them to set
up small enterprises, particularly in the informal sector. The main activities
in this area should be enterprise support, expansion of markets and development
of complementary tourism
enterprises,
such as craft initiatives and cultural displays. Local enterprises need to be
developed to supply the tourism industry itself (for example, with accommodation,
food and materials).
A wide range of
measures will have to be used to overcome the multiple barriers to economic
participation (such as lack of credit, inappropriate social organisation, insecure
tenure and remote location). Since local entrepreneurs generally lack
entrepreneurial skills
to engage with
private operators in the formal tourism sector, training will need to be a key
intervention.
Further, there
is a need to combine supply side measures (developing products and skills
directly with the poor) with measures to expand demand for the products and
services of the poor amongst tourists and operators. Supportive NGO-type organizations
dedicated to supporting small enterprises need to be encouraged to assist them.
The employment opportunities
for the poor can be expanded by ensuring that the investors and operators
in the formal tourism sector are committed to source employment locally
thereby, also benefitting from low staff turnover.
However, the
jobs should not be concentrated among few families and the better off in the
local community. Further, focus must also be placed on pursuing skills
development to enable local community to take up skilled jobs which may be
created.
The collective
community income can be enhanced, inter alia, through
levies on tourists and operators; equity partnerships in which the community
holds a stake; lease fees paid by private operators; and donations from
tourists. However, it is necessary to develop
strong,
accountable and transparent community organisations to ensure that the collective
income is not misused. The enhanced collective benefits can spread benefits
well beyond the direct earners.
2.
The non-economic benefits can
be increased by
(i)
Capacity building, training and empowerment;
(ii)
Mitigating the environmental impact of tourism on the poor;
(iii)
Addressing social and cultural impact of tourism.
Capacity building is
central to the strategy in increasing non-economic benefits since the poor
often lack the skills and knowledge to take
advantage of
opportunities in tourism. Investment in capacity building is essential but a
long-term process. The main focus should be on increasing poor people’s basic
understanding of tourists and the tourism industry; training in business
skills; and local institutional capacity building for empowerment.
Environmental
sustainability is an important element of ‘pro-poor tourism’ since tourism
can lead to displacement of the poor from their land and/or degradation of the
natural resources on which the poor depend. Therefore, tourism should be
integrated with broader rural development work that includes natural resource
management activity.
The social and cultural
impact of tourism can be addressed by promoting cultural
tourism which allows for capitalizing on cultural assets which are
predominantly owned by the poor. Similarly strategies should be designed to
improve local infrastructure, health care and access to information and
communication.
3. The policy/process reform
should focus on
(i)
promoting participation;
(ii)
bringing the private sector in the formal tourism sector into business partnerships
with small local entrepreneurs; and
(iii)
building a more supportive policy and planning framework.
Participation can
be promoted by enhancing the participation of the local community in
decision-making. Tourism should be integrated
into the
participatory district planning process as one of a range of opportunities for
local economic development.
The private
sector in the formal tourism sector should promote business partnerships by
acting as an important market for the products of small entrepreneurs (for
example, goods and services purchased for a lodge). Private companies,
particularly tour operators and agents, should also channelise their own
clients to small enterprises of the local community. The formal tourism sector
will need to take
responsibility
for developing local, skills marketing links, and commercial expertise of
locally driven tourism enterprises.
The policy and planning
framework can be a strong enabler of ‘pro-poor tourism’. Therefore,
there is a strong case for reform. Some of the most
influencing strategies include promoting participatory planning; increasing
communication with Government and establishing a voice for small producers;
lobbying government for supportive policies and legislation—both within tourism
and in other sectors (for example, land tenure, infrastructure, local
planning); lobbying the local conservation authority to invest in destination
marketing and infrastructural
development and to lift restrictions on development; promoting
inter-departmental initiatives and coordination; linking with the national tourism
authority; and using Government’s power to allocate concessions to influence
investors.
In general, tourism provides
better opportunities for women’s participation in the
workforce, women’s entrepreneurship, and women’s leadership than other sectors
of the economy. Women in tourism are still underpaid, under-utilised,
under-educated, and under-represented; tourism offers pathways to success.
The ‘pro-poor
tourism’ approach should be a vehicle for furthering the advancement and
empowerment of women who constitute a large proportion of the most vulnerable
in the local community.
The implementation of various strategies for development
of tourism would involve developing formal and informal links between all
stakeholders and coordination across all levels of Government.
It would be
necessary to establish a ‘whole government’ agenda for tourism development
between departments at national level and between national and local government
so as to create convergence and synergy across programmes. This requires that awareness
is created amongst all stakeholders and across Government about the
contribution of tourism to local livelihoods and engage them in joint
initiatives to
increase the local economic development and impact on poverty reduction.
The National Tourism Policy should
reflect clear progress in ‘tilting’ tourism to unlock more opportunities for
the poor.It should form an integral part of the poverty reduction strategy
during the Twelfth Five Year Plan.
The realisation
of the country’s huge, barely tapped, tourism potential is contingent upon
simultaneously addressing the multiple challenges thrown up by capacity
constraints and inadequate policies.
These
constraints include inadequate transportation infrastructure; accommodation;
land; multiple taxes and an overall high tax burden; inadequate financial resources
for enterprises; skills; safety and hygiene conditions around tourist
attractions; and convergence of actions by
multiple agencies. The challenges are further magnified in the context of a
federal structure where the responsibilities for policymaking and
implementation fragmented across levels of government and co‐ordination
between them is often lacking.
DEVELOPMENT
OF TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE
Availability of good infrastructure is one of the
essential requirements at selected tourist destinations.
The
infrastructure for tourism includes travel infrastructure networks like
airports, railways, roads, waterways, telecommunications; amenities like
electricity, water supply, drainage sewerage, solid waste disposal systems and
tourism facilities, services and amenities like accommodation, restaurants,
recreational facilities and shopping facilities. The operation of tourism
facilities, services and amenities are
often dependent
on a number of travel infrastructure networks. The most usual case in tourism
development is for infrastructure development to precede the completion of the
tourism facilities. This means that the installation of the infrastructure
becomes a public sector
responsibility. The case for infrastructure services being a public sector
responsibility is based on the consideration that the network of services is
available to both tourists and residents of the area and the
construction of an integrated system would also facilitate non-tourism
development within the region.
In terms of the federal framework of the Constitution,
the responsibilities of the Union
Government and
the State/UT Governments are elaborated in separate schedules to the
Constitution..
The strategy
for development of tourism infrastructure should essentially focus on
identifying clusters of habitations/destinations having unique craft,
ethnic art form, culture and heritage, natural spots for development as tourism
products and develop tourist circuits/destinations around them on a Mission
Mode with the active participation of local communities. As part of this
strategy, State Governments
should be expected to identify at least one
integrated tourist circuit, map all the tangible and intangible
natural and cultural assets along the circuit, estimate the sustainable
destination carrying capacity and undertake a gap analysis of the travel
infrastructure network and tourism facilities, services and amenities.
Based on this, a comprehensive integrated
physical and financial plan should be prepared through a community
participatory process.
The Plan should
identify, inter alia, the winners and losers, agencies responsible for
executing the sub-components of the plan and the timelines for achieving the
milestones. The integrated plan should be approved and monitored by the
Ministry of Tourism as part of the Product/Infrastructure Development of
Destination and Circuits Scheme (PIDDCS).
To the extent
there is shortfall in the financing of the plan, the same may be considered for
financing under the PIDDC subject to a ceiling there under.
Easy access to tourism destinations in terms
of international transport and facilities for easy movement within the
destinations are prerequisites for the development of tourism.
India’s ability to open up new areas and
properly service emerging tourism resorts, while also providing access to natural
tourism attractions and circuits for tours will significantly depend upon its
ability to quickly improve the airport density and quality of rail and roads.
The existing Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other schemes of the
Central Government could be used to improve the quality of transport
infrastructure.
In terms of
investment, especially private investment, tourist accommodation represents the
most expensive facility in tourist resorts. In the past few decades, the
character and composition of tourist accommodation has undergone considerable change.
New types of accommodation, such as selfcatering units, home stay, budget hotel
accommodation and camping sites, have evolved to meet market
demands for
increased levels of independence, selfsufficiency, informality, economy and
convenience.
Such changes
have been influenced by the emergence of the new types of travellers and the
tourists who invest in a holiday home or unit in a preferred tourism
destination. As the spectrum of travelers has undergone transformation, there
have also been changes in the requirements for traditional hotel accommodation.
The availability of hotel rooms in India is extremely
limited. Further, there is acute shortage of land in urban areas particularly
in cities due to land market distortions discussed separately in Chapter 4.
Therefore, the
prospect of large-scale new traditional hotel accommodation is extremely
limited. It is imperative to expand the number of registrations under the home
stay scheme in various stays so as to significantly augment hotel room capacity
in India.
This will open
up new livelihood opportunities for local people.
HUMAN
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING
Tourism is a labour-intensive industry and a
major source of employment. Therefore, issues of human resources development
and capacity building are
extremely important. The problem of human resource is identified as a shortage
of trained labour; lack of trainers; inadequate training materials and lack of
tourism education strategies as part of national tourism planning.
Other issues concerning human resources
development in the tourism industry include: working conditions, availability
of education and training,
policy issues, information and technology and cultural issues.
Developing human resources in the tourism sector
faces unique challenges because customer preferences, travel patterns,
information technology and conditions at destinations are changing rapidly.
As a result,
strong and flexible human resources development strategies are needed. The
strategy should mirror human resources needs and the corresponding recruitment,
employment and training requirements.
Training
programmes need to articulate well with employment creation, for maximum
synergy.
Training should
be strictly need-based and demandled.
Thus, it is
necessary to establish linkages with various labour market institutions and
processes: labour market information, employment services, public works, credit
and other support to small enterprises, unemployment and social support
services and so on.
Training
services for existing enterprises to upgrade and re-orient technical skills or
develop management capacity can help stimulate their labour absorption, avoid
retrenchments and facilitate redeployment of retrenched workers.
Therefore, the
tourism training strategy should focus on employability, sustainability and
promotion of decent work culture especially to safeguard foreign tourists. In
the light of the above, the following initiatives need to be undertaken during
the Twelfth Plan period to expand the tourism related human resource base:
a. Setting
up new SIHMs: Government will need to accord permission to set-up new
SIHMs which will also implement the craft courses, short duration skill
development courses and skill certification programme.
b. Setting
up of new Food Crafts Institutes (FCIs):
Government will
need to sanction new FCIs to increase the number of turn-outs with hospitality skills
and ensuring sustainable operations.
c. Setting
up of a Hospitality University:
d. Revamping
NCHMCT:
e. Preserving
and promoting Indian Cuisine—Setting up of a Indian Culinary Institute (ICI):
f. Expansion
of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM):
This initiative will include
setting up of a North-Eastern Centre of the IITTM; seeking Deemed
University/Institute of National Importance status for the IITTM; and
developing Simulation Labs at IITTM Centres for hands on training.
g. Reorganising
the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, Gulmarg
h. Modifications
in the Scheme of Assistance to IHM/ FCI:
i. Expand the
scope and size of the Hunar-se-Rozgar program.
j. Promotion
of excellence in institutes:
k. Merits-cum-scholarships:
a. Setting
up of dedicated teachers’ training institutes:
b. Designating
some IHMs as teachers’ training institutes with need-based
infrastructural and faculty strengthening.
c. Setting
up of Training Institutes in Rural Areas:
CAMPAIGN
CLEAN INDIA
A study
conducted by MoT at important tourist destinations revealed that cleanliness
and hygiene at these places was much below the acceptable level. This not only
inconvenienced the tourists, both domestic and foreign, but also had a
pull-down impact on image-India. Government should launch a Clean India
Campaign by adopting a multi-pronged strategy comprising of persuasion,
education, sensitisation,
training,
demonstration and regulation. The Campaign should involve every strata of the
society, the NGOs and the Corporate Sector. For steering and monitoring the
Campaign, a dedicated Cell in the MoT should be set up. As a first step, top 50
most popular monuments and tourist sites may be identified for setting-up pay
toilets with separate facilities for women and the physically challenged.
PUBLICITY,
PROMOTION AND MARKETING
In order to
promote and market brand India and increase India’s share in global tourists’
arrival to 1 per cent, it is imperative to adopt a multi-pronged tourism
marketing strategy. Some of the important elements of the strategy are
discussed below:
a. Establish
overseas tourism offices/information centres in the target markets
Ministry of
Tourism should enhance the reach of brand ‘Incredible India’ and increase
inbound tourism from established source markets and new potential markets which
increasingly contribute to global traffic like Spain, Russia, South America,
and Scandinavian nations, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea and so on. The existing
scheme of opening tourist marketing offices of the Ministry of Tourism should be
supplemented by appointing ‘India Tourism Marketing Representatives (ITMR)’.
The ITMRs would be private firms and companies who would represent and
undertake required promotional activities in the desired markets in the local
language on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism. They will have the necessary
market intelligence to work with the local trade in their language on
increasing awareness, undertaking publicity and branding, facilitating travel
trade, printing of collaterals and so on. The ITMRs will be paid performance
related charges for
the services
rendered by them.
b. Produce
effective marketing and promotional materials
c. Promote
travel festivals
An annual
National Travel Mart under the title ‘Global Travel Mart, India’ should be organized
every year with the main objective of attracting buyers to an event which
offers them the entire range of Travel and Tourism products and services in
India, in one location. The scope of the fair should include Travel trade.
Government should also organise ‘India Festivals’ in important overseas markets
to showcase
and promote the
tourism destinations, culture, cuisine, handicrafts, textiles and costumes, and
so on, of the country. These events should be organised by the Indian tourist
industry in collaboration with all the stakeholders but the cost should be
borne by the Central and State Governments. Similarly, business meetings may be
organised between tour operators from India and the Festivals hosting country.
d. Develop a
specialised website for tourism products
e. Arrange
more familiarisation trips for travel agencies abroad
f. Arrange
international meetings in the region where delegates can be exposed to tourist
attractions and activities
International
Buddhist Conclave should be organised every two years with the objective of
promoting Buddhist circuits and sites in the country. The conclaves may host
eminent scholars, tour operators, media and opinion makers from India and abroad.
Similarly, conclaves could be held for other religious and cultural groups.
g. Advertorial
campaigns to promote and provide information about new and niche tourism
products and destinations
The Incredible
India campaigns have been generic in nature and have effectively generated general
awareness about India as a tourism destination. The campaigns should be more
focused and niche tourism products of the country like Heritage Home Tourism,
Religious Tourism, Rural Tourism, Wellness and Medical Tourism, MICE Tourism, Adventure
Tourism, Golf, Polo, and so on, should be promoted aggressively through the
Campaigns.
Specific Road
Shows focusing on these Niche Products may also be organised overseas, in
association with stakeholders from the relevant fields. The Himalayas and the
Sayadhris can be promoted aggressively as destinations for adventure tourism, wildlife
and indigenous culture and heritage.
h. Undertake
social awareness campaigns
The ‘Atithidevo
Bhava’ campaign should be re-enforced to generate wide-spread awareness on issues
related to good behaviour towards tourists, civic responsibilities, security
and comfort of tourists and so on. It will also help to train local policemen
to bring about an attitudinal change towards tourists.
i. Public–Private
Co-operation
PROMOTING
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Against this background, it is necessary to define
the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and
the indicators. The STCI system should be evolved to
address the issues relating to the modus operandi of the STCI certification
mechanism; incentivising STCI certification; capacity building in industry and
the Government; creating governance coefficients using contemporary technology;
grievance redressal and review of the certification process.
STCI needs to
be immediately operationalised. In the initial years, the adoption of STCI by individual
tourism establishments will have to be voluntary. For
implementation of STCI, a system of rating/certification of establishments
would have to be evolved. Such a system would need to address key issues like
type of rating; incentive for rated/certified establishments; logo for rated/certified
establishments;
process and
institutional mechanism for certification, validity of certification; audit and
capacity building.
VISA
FACILITATION
The Government
should, therefore, set-up a High-Powered Committee comprising of officers from
the Ministries of Home, External Affairs,Tourism, and
Planning Commission and trade representatives to re-engineer the procedure for
issuing of visa within 48 hours of receipt of the application, enabling the
online filling of visa applications in local language in the non-English
speaking countries (especially in Europe); a single window clearance system for
conference and medical visa applications and extending
the facility for issuing visa on Tatkal (emergency)
basis on the payment of higher fee as in the case of passports. Similarly, the
fee for Medical Visa needs to be rationalised and the facility of collective landing
permit should be introduced.
Another aspect
of visa which needs to be reviewed relates to issuance of Tourist Visa on Arrival
(TVOA). it is necessary to further extend the TVOA facility to European
countries (for example, Germany, France, Spain) for which multiple entry visa
is allowed; CIS countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, and so on; ASEAN
countries—Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei; and other International Airports of the
country like Panaji, Bengaluru, Bodh Gaya, Trivandrum, Kochi and Hyderabad.
Further, in order to enrich the experience of tourists with the TVOA facility,
immigration Officials
dealing with TVOA facility need to be trained to create an awareness of the
tourism industry among the immigration officers.
SAFETY
AND SECURITY
Safety and the
security of the tourists is a worldwide concern. Any adverse perception about
safety and security of the tourists has serious implications for
tourist arrivals to the country and its tourist destinations. Accordingly,
based on experience, the scheme for constitution of Tourist Facilitation and
Security Organization(s) (TFSOs) in States/UTs employing ex-servicemen
introduced during the Eleventh Plan may be extended during the Twelfth Plan.
Similarly, the Government should undertake awareness campaigns for spreading a
message for adoption of Code of Conduct for ‘Safe and Honourable Tourism’ among
the stakeholders, service providers and State level Tourism Departments.
The Code is a
set of guidelines primarily intended to encourage tourism activities to be
undertaken without compromising the basic rights like dignity, safety and
freedom from exploitation of both tourists and local residents, in particular,
women and children.
MARKET
RESEARCH AND TOURISM STATISTICS
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