Making India Tourist Friendly: Atithi Devo Bhav

India is a fascinating country and it has varied tourist attractions. It has vast variety of religions, culture, language, hoary history, climatic diversity and its rich flora and fauna. It has some of the highest mountains, beautiful rivers, vast forests, a long coastline, unexplored islands and cultural heritage dating back to 1500 B.C. The traces of its rich history are seen everywhere and they are more visible in places like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Chennai, Goa, Kolkata and Mumbai etc.

India is the only country in the world where the followers of various religions and their places of importance are found. Ajanta, Ellora and the Elephanta caves are famous for their art and architecture. Kashmir, Kulu, Manali, Mussorie, Ooty, Kodaikanal, the Kovalam beach in Kerala and the Colva beaches in Goa are famous for their scenic beauty. The lakes and lagoons of Kerala have few parallels in the world. The great National parks and sanctuaries like Kaziranga, Gir, Corbett National Park, Ranthambore and the Silent Valley are all a great attraction for tourists.

Tourism, today is the second largest industry in the world. It is expected to become the major global industry in the 21^st century as it offers opportunities for economic, cultural and political exchanges at all levels. It generates employment, earns foreign exchange and raises the living standards of the people. In India tourism is the third largest foreign exchange earning sector after the gem and jewelry and ready-made garments sector. This industry employs a large number of women, literate and semi-literate persons in hotels, travel agencies, airlines and cultural activities.

Tourism promotes the traditional handicrafts sector and provides the tourist with an insight into rich and diverse cultural heritage of India. In spite of all our potential only 0.6 % share of global tourist traffic as compared to small countries like Singapore and Malaysia. One reason of our dismal performance is the fact that 10 % of the global tourist movement is confined to North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Some other reasons of low tourist arrival in India are the lack of facilities required by the tourists such as traffic congestion, unplanned urbanization and indifference of the civil authorities and the citizens.

Pollution and large scale destruction of places of tourist interest have led to the fall in tourist flow in India. India’s religious destinations and temple towns draw some of the largest numbers of tourists and devotees yet hospitality facilities at these canters are inadequate. The lodging places lack hygiene, cleanliness, safety and food facilities. Basic comfort  and hygiene is wanted. It has been noticed that authentic information about the tourist destinations is not available to the foreign tourists.

Foreign tourist are cheated by taxi-drivers and touts who pretend to be friendly with them. The Government owned tourism department is managed by officials who generally do not influence and encourage tourism. The ITDC (Indian Tourism Development Corporation) has failed in promoting tourism. Its five-star hotels are mismanaged and are running in huge losses. That is why some of them have been sold to the private sector. These hotels entertain politicians and bureaucrats and they incur loss. The foreign tourists are expected to pay tips to the attendants. While they travel, they are harassed by beggars and local vendors. The terrorist related activities have also deprived the Kashmir Valley of its original beauty and thus have affected the tourism industry.

Realizing the importance of tourism, the Central and State Governments have put tourism high on their priorities. In order to make India tourist friendly and enable the tourism industry to develop, a synergy program has been launched to develop the infrastructure required. In order to encourage tourists, an action plan has been launched. The Government has also adopted the Special Tourism Areas (STAs) concept wherein a few tourist areas with high tourism potential are identified and provided with infrastructure facilities. New projects have been taken up to attract the maximum number of tourists. Places of interest for the Buddhists, like Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh and the Ajanta Ellora Caves in Maharashtra have been given top priority.

Adventure tourism is very popular these days, so it is being taken up on a priority basis. It includes skiing, aero sports, mountaineering, camel and horse riding, trekking, cycling, fishing and boating. Rajasthan offers ample opportunities of adventure tourism. The Government is organizing a large number of fairs and festivals for the promotion of tourism. Air-India, Indian Airlines and the ITDC have launched incentive schemes. All the states have been asked to draw up their tourist investment plans, on the basis of which Central Government draws the national tourist development plan. This plan will suggest what facilities are needed and what incentives can be made available to the tourists.

The Government has set up The Tourism Finance Corporation of India to provide financial assistance to the private sector for the development of tourism related services and facilities. The new Industrial Policy has declared the hotel and tourism related industry as a high priority industry for investment upto 51 % of foreign equity. The NRI investment is allowed upto 100 %.

To conclude we may say that all this is not enough. They are effective marketing strategy, creation of more and better infrastructural facilities like roads, hotels, airline services in the public as well as private sector. It is also advisable to combine cultural tourism, pilgrimage tourism, leisure holiday (on beaches, hill stations and lakes), and adventure tourism in one integrated approach. It is also necessary to develop and improve tourist facilities at the sites of monuments and en route. It is hoped that with the sincere efforts of all those involved with Indian tourism, it will make great progress in the years to come. A purely market-oriented and friendly approach would lead the tourism industry in the right direction and make Indian tourism attractive and competitive. Our hospitality will prove to be an effective marketing tool in boosting the tourist traffic to India.

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Namaste India Travels