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Tourism is a major social phenomenon of the modern society with enormous economic consequences. Its importance as an instrument for economic development and employment generation has now been well recognized the world over. The existing Tourism Policy provides a framework for development of tourism with the objective of reaping the socio-economic benefits of the sector. The traditional treatment of a visitor in India is based on the mythological concept of Atithi Devo Bhavah (Guest is God). This is the latest mantra of the Indian tourism sector. The Ministry of Tourism has launched the “Atithi Devo Bhavah” campaign last year under its ambitious programme to attract more number of tourists and the end-results speak volumes about the progress. The concept is aimed at capacity building for service providers and stakeholders in the tourism sector to make the tourists aware of the benefits in India and the need to treat them with traditional care and utmost courtesy. This has been further boosted by the New National Tourism Policy, which revolves round a framework — Government-led, private sector-driven and community-welfare oriented. The Tenth Plan approach to the sector is also aimed at ensuring that the tourist to India gets “physically invigorated, mentally rejuvenated, culturally enriched, spiritually elevated and feels India within him.”
India Tourism
The Tourism Ministry, through the INDIA TOURISM offices abroad, undertakes a series of promotional activities in tourist generating markets for increasing the number of tourists visiting India. These include advertising, participation in fairs and exhibitions, organizing seminars, workshops and road shows, publication of brochures, joint advertising support and inviting media personalities, tour operators and opinion makers to visit the country under the Hospitality program of the Ministry. In India, the focus is to create infrastructure in rural areas having potential for tourism. The objective is to showcase rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations and in villages, which have core-competency in terms of craft/handloom/textiles etc.
For the last four decades, there has been a sweeping revolution in the tourism sector across the world. The number of tourists worldwide has been growing and it is expected to swell to 1.5 billion and the receipts from it are estimated to cross 2000 billion US dollars. India has taken note of the boom in the tourism sector and geared itself to meet the challenges. As a result, tourism in the present day world did not confine itself to hotels, restaurants and sea beaches alone its arena touched rural areas (Rural Tourism), health sector (Health Tourism) and environment (Eco-tourism). That is why it is said necessity is the mother of invention. The government’s policy is to take the benefits of tourism to people in rural areas to ensure socio-economic development of the village, society and the nation altogether.
Constraints
Despite several constraints facing the tourism sector, India’s share in world tourist arrivals was 0.44 per cent in 2004. The constraints include shortage of air seat capacity, high air fares, shortage of hotel accommodation and high hotel tariffs, deficiencies in infrastructure such as airports, roads, railways, facilitation of entry to India by International tourists, multiplicity and high level of taxation, restricted land use policies for tourism protects and absence of single window approach.
The government has prepared 20 year Perspective Plans for tourism development in the country. The tourism policy encourages private sector to act as a main spring of the activities and impart dynamism and speed to the process of development as well as conservation, attaches importance to the improvements and environmental upgradation of the protected monuments and the areas around them.
The Ministry has undertaken studies on taxes levied by the state/central governments in the Indian Tourism sector and the impact of Civil Aviation Policies on Tourism in the country. The study on taxes has highlighted the problem of high rate of taxation and multitude central and state level taxes leading to high cost of packages. The study has recommended rationalization of taxes like expenditure tax, service tax, customs duty and taxation of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), need for introduction of new incentives to increase tourism expenditure and volume and promotion of investment in the industry.
New Approach
The government has decided to stimulate investment and encourage the state governments to develop unique tourism products suited to their genius. The aim is to enhance the employment potential within the tourism sector as well as to foster economic integration through developing linkages with other sectors. The new approach is to: Position tourism as a major engine of economic growth; Harness the direct and multiplier effects of tourism for employment generation, economic development and providing impetus to rural tourism; Provide a major thrust to domestic tourism which will act as a spring-board for growth and expansion of international tourism; Position India as a global brand to take advantage of the burgeoning global travel and trade and the vast untapped potential of India as a destination; Acknowledge the critical role of private sector with government working as an active facilitator and catalyst; Create and develop integrated tourist circuits based on India’s unique civilization, heritage and culture in partnership with States, Private Sector and other agencies.
New Initiatives in 2004-2005
The government has set up a monitoring mechanism for expediting projects sanctioned in the last ten years. In the 8th and 9th Plans, as many as 2,526 projects were sanctioned and these were supposed to be completed within 30 months from the date of sanction. The delay in implementation of the projects by the state governments led to slow progress in these works. As a result some of the projects sanctioned during the 8th plan are still incomplete. In order to ensure timely implementation and also coordination between various departments involved in the projects sanctioned under the schemes for Circuit Development, Destination Development and Rural Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has requested all the State governments and Union Territory Administrations to constitute State level Monitoring Committees under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Tourism) including the district authorities concerned, representatives of the implementing agencies such as CPWD, HUDCO, ASI, Indiatourism and local authorities.
Health Tourism
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of Tourism have jointly formed a Task Force with a view to promoting India as a Health Destination for persons across the globe so as to gainfully utilize the health care expertise and infrastructure available in the country. The new domestic and global campaigns for the current year focus on India as a destination for niche segments like Medical Tourism, Cruise Tourism, and Spiritual Tourism. The aim is to expand the range of the tourism products in India both for the domestic and international consumers. The Ministry has also promoted Monsoon Tourism in various states. The government has taken up a number of steps to increase foreign tourist arrivals to India. They include: Creation of World Class Collaterals, Centralized Electronic Media Campaigns, Direct cooperative marketing with tour operators and wholesalers overseas, Greater Focus in the emerging markets, particularly in the Region of China; North-East Asia and South East Asia, Participation in Trade Fairs & Exhibitions, Optimizing Editorial PR and Publicity, Use of Internet and Web marketing, Generating Tourist Publications, Reinforcing hospitality programmes including grant of air passages to invite media personnel and tour operators and Launching of Road Shows in key source markets of Europe. The government of India has introduced a new category of Medical Visa (M-Visa), which can be given for specific period to foreign tourists coming to India for medical treatment.
Cruise Tourism
The government has constituted a high-power Steering Group to formulate Cruise Shipping Policy in the country. The recommendations of this Group include formation of Working Groups to look into issues like – immigration, customs clearances, quarantine restrictions, identification of ports, infrastructural facilities, connectivity, taxation issues, tourism related issue and cabotage to develop cruise shipping policy for India. On the Eastern part of the country, Tuticorin Port and Chennai Port, have been identified.
Eco-Tourism
The National Eco-Tourism Policy and Guidelines aim to preserve, retain and enrich natural resources and to ensure regulated growth of Eco-Tourism with its positive impacts on environmental protection and community development. Under this guidelines, the government has prioritized several projects in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh in 2005-06.
Foreign Tourists
As a result of Incredible India campaigns, the foreign tourist arrivals increased from (-) 6 per cent in 2002 to 23.5 per cent in 2004. An estimated 3.54 million foreign tourists arrived in India during 2004. The foreign exchange earnings in 2004 in terms of rupees registered a growth of 32.9 per cent. In absolute terms, the foreign exchange earnings increased from Rs.16,429 crores to Rs.21,828 crores. The Bureau of Immigration has estimated that about 6.2 million Indians went abroad during 2004 as compared to 5.4 million in 2003 and 4.9 million in 2002. The tourist arrivals during January-June, 2005 also registered an increase of 18.6% over the arrival in corresponding period of 2004. Foreign exchange earnings through tourism up to, June this year has registered an increase of 25.2%. Total earnings during the period were Rs.12527.04 crore and in Dollar terms 2821.21 million, up by 26.4 per cent. The number of tourists including those from foreign countries visiting Cellular Jail in Port Blair (Andamans) during the last three calendar years has gone up from 48,594 in 2002 to 55,912 in 2003 to 94,311 in 2004.
Tourism boost in North-Eastern States
The number of foreign tourists visiting the 8 North Eastern States has gone up from 22,047 in 2002 to 29,478 in 2003 to 39,437 in 2004. The amount sanctioned for various projects for development of tourism in the north-eastern states has gone up from Rs.1807.30 lakh in 2002-03 to Rs.4310.68 lakh in 2003-04. In 2004-05, a sum of Rs.6979.10 lakh has been sanctioned. Of this, Nagaland has got a major share of Rs.2165.69 lakh followed by Rs.1285.70 lakh (Arunachal Pradesh) and Rs.1086.35 lakh (Mizoram) and Rs.963.30 lakh (Meghalaya).
Assam has witnessed a gradual increase in the inflow of domestic as well as foreign tourists. As many as 19,53,915 domestic and 6,409 foreign tourists had visited Assam in 2002. This was against 21,56,675 domestic and 6,610 foreign tourists visiting the state in 2003. In 2004, the number of domestic tourists has gone up to 22,88,093 and that of foreign tourists to 7,285.
**Freelance Writer
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