ALTHOUGH handicapped by infrastructure problems, reflected in the underdeveloped road network and other assets in the country, coupled with the exorbitant hotel room prices, India plans to aggressively tap the tourism sector’s high revenue-yielding potential, and avail of the current momentum seen in the rise in tourism revenue that has benefited not only the tourism industry but also other segments of the economy.
“Tourism traffic to India grew by 5.4 per cent in 2012. We had some 6.4 million tourist arrivals last year, yielding total revenues of $17.74 billion and posting a 7.1 per cent growth over the previous year. Our targeted goal is to achieve one per cent of the global tourism by the year 2016,” said K. Chiranjeevi, India’s tourism minister.
According to Chiranjeevi, the tourism ministry is trying to promote India as a ‘round-the-year tourism destination’. India also benefited in terms of publicity from films such as Life of Pi and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which were shot on location in India and received rave notices in the international media.
Cheeranjivi also spoke about the 25th joint meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) Commissions for East Asia/Pacific and South Asia which was held in Hyderabad from April 12 to 14.
He said that the UNWTO and India were jointly espousing the cause of developing nations in the global context. India played an active role in the materialisation of a resolution by the G20 heads of nations underscoring the importance of tourism as a pro-poor activity which can be a major instrument for economic development and generating jobs.
Meanwhile, the Incredible India promotion campaign, launched in 2002 and consolidated in 2007, is now going to the next level. “There is a paradigm shift evident in India’ tourism strategy. We are shifting now from communicating about the product to communicating with the consumers,” Chiranjeevi said.
However, the minister acknowledged that India’s infrastructure needed to be improved and expended to sustain growth in traffic. While infrastructure has vastly improved in many big cities – the quality of Indian airports, which create a first and indeed, long-lasting impression on tourists, has undergone a noticeable improvement. The inter-city road connections are still lagging behind the goals set by the Indian government. Indian tourist experts underscored the government’s commitment to developing infrastructure which can also provide a strong impetus to economic growth and benefit those regions that have remained almost untouched by the growth momentum.
The high prices of hotel rooms in India also pose a hindrance in attracting leisure tourism. While business travellers to India may not be particularly concerned by the exorbitant hotel prices, which are absorbed by their respective corporations, leisure tourists tend to be dissuaded when they hear that a room in a small no-frills- hotel in Mumbai, for example, can cost as much as $100 per night.
Foreign tourists feel disinclined to visit a destination that cannot offer good, clean and affordable hotel accommodation which is a pre-requisite to attracting leisure tourists. By contrast, four and even five-star hotels in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and – soon to be opened – Myanmar, attract much higher tourist arrivals by virtue of their much lower prices.
“The tourism ministry is developing budget accommodation to make India an affordable destination. I am aware that India should become affordable for leisure tourists to visit,” Chiranjeevi said.
The Indian tourism ministry is also concerned over hygienic conditions at some landmarks of interest for foreign visitors. Accordingly, a hygiene campaign has been launched near some of the country’s landmarks to ensure that high standards in hygiene are maintained.
Visa-free travel will be the mantra to attract tourists from high-spending countries such as Germany, France, etc., without, however, compromising on India’s security needs, said Chiranjeevi.
“We are working towards relaxing the visa regime for certain countries. We already have in place a visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility for a number of countries and we are going to extend it to include other countries as well,” the minister said. The countries that will benefit in this second VOA phase will include a number of European countries and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
But not content with the progress achieved, the minister said that tourism for him constituted an important agenda with extensive implications for the development of the country and for uplifting the poor masses.
“Indeed, we have formed a committee at the level of the Prime Minister’s office to streamline and resolve the issues faced by the tourism,” he added.
New regions that will be promoted in the future will concentrate in the north eastern part the country. Indian tourism ministry sees good tourism potential in the Buddhist circuit which is visited by many Asian tourists, including from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, etc. “We are developing and promoting north eastern India and other Buddhist landmarks in the country,” he concluded.
By Manik Mehta