Tourism along with railways has always
been a key focus area of the new prime minister even before he became one and
it is now time that these sectors are actually harnessed for the national good.
Unfortunately tourism, an activity of the masses has always been looked upon
with an elitist undertone and therefore the sector rarely got the attention and
the priority it rightfully deserved despite its unmatched multiplier effect and
capacity for generating employment.
There has always been an ongoing
debate over whether tourism is a state or a federal subject and voices to bring
it on the concurrent list were always getting raised. Yet the fact remains that
merely being on a list is not a guarantor of growth or development and what
really matters are intentions and also the efforts to convert them into
reality. During my earlier roller coaster stint in the federal ministry of
tourism I always wondered whether merely putting Agra, the home of the Tajmahal
in order should not be the starting point for setting right the entire gamut of
tourism in the nation. Yet it was never to be as we always aspired to do
something big while failing in achieving the small.
Another issue that has always been on
the top of my mind is whether the primary role of the tourism departments at
the federal and state levels is tourism for the mandarins or tourism for the
masses. For masses obviously it has to be, yet the tours beyond the confines of
the shores have continued unabated, cutting across states and shades of
governance. Our focus definitely needs to shift from beyond the shores to
setting our own house in order and then zoom forward.
It is not merely about how many
visitors we receive from beyond the shores. Tourism to my mind is more about
enabling our countrymen to explore the richness of their own country, something
that gets shrouded by the glimmer of what is regarded and worshipped as foreign
stuff.
It is also of essence that the
national perspective on tourism does not remain confined merely to figures both
of foreign tourist arrivals and the home population moving within the country.
Unfortunately the national mind-set is guided and also led by statistics, and
therein lies the malaise. Even while remaining confined to statistics, the
essential difference between the tourist, who is basically an explorer, and the
traveller, who may be moving for many reasons needs to be appreciated, though both form part of the
tourism statistics that are regularly being churned out and touted by those who
matter in the matter of tourism in the country.
Another fallacy is related to
international advertising. Our sheer inability to appreciate that the
bottleneck in so far as foreign tourist arrivals is concerned is not the
inability to showcase but the number of
seats in the aircrafts plying between the homeland and the rest of the world. It
is time to realize that advertising is not merely for increasing the numbers
but also for improving the image perception and creating the desire to visit
and it therefore has to be primarily driven by the Indian ethos, culture and
achievements and not merely the numbers game.
And it is also about infrastructure.
The much-needed basic tourist infrastructure is a dire necessity and merely releasing
grants to the State Governments who permit only a trickle to reach the ground
is not making the difference it actually should. The release of funds alone is
an inadequate measure unless it results in an actual conversion and in its
absence a pat on the back is not really in order. The emergence of a good
monitoring and executing machinery is the desperate need of the hour.
The India Tourism Development
Corporation is indeed the sad story of Indian tourism. An inherently profitable
commercial organization also entrusted with the national mandate of development
of tourism has been brought to seed by inept leadership provided by high
ranking bureaucrats. Is it not really unfortunate that along with Air India,
ITDC is also now regarded as the national symbol of sloth, inefficiency and
corruption? Both these commercial monoliths could have given a tremendous push
to the cause of tourism as well as travel within the country, something they
did till professionalism remained at the core of their operations. Yet both can
turnaround provided………
It is beyond doubt that tourism as an
activity almost always happens on its own, without prodding from the governments,
and that it helps local economies to grow at a pace much higher than in other
sectors. Its employment potential as well as impact on economy many times over
the investment in the sector have already received adequate national hype and
now it warrants real inputs not merely rhetoric
from the governments.
It is now time that the handling of
tourism moves beyond the established clichés and it actually starts driving local economies, besides giving a
thrust to the re-emergence and positioning of ancient Indian heritage, art,
culture and thought. It would indeed be futile to look at tourism without
looking at all that the country stands for. The sectors encompassing tourism
and culture are complimentary and a much higher natural synergy will now
perhaps be achieved after the merger of the two ministries.
The role of the Government of India Tourist
Offices, popularly known as GOITO’s that earlier formed the backbone of the
national effort to give a thrust to tourism need a much deeper understanding
and appreciation. Merely finding faults without suitably empowering them to
function efficiently in a fast changing international scenario is causing more
damage than good. Perhaps an injection of fundamentals of administration and
management is the need of the hour. It is also necessary that the unfortunate
state of affairs in which these offices and the men who man them stand
castigated should cease once and for all.
Lack
of cleanliness and hygiene is also a bane of the tourism sector in the nation.
Perhaps it is an issue related to the mind-set that is prevalent, yet there is
no alternative to maintaining in a state of utmost cleanliness both our tourist
destinations as well as places of human habitat in general. The recent clean
india campaign marked a good beginning, yet the effort has lost steam midway or
so it appears.
And make it easy for the private sector to invest. That the number of
hotel rooms in the organized sector is far lower than that in the city state of
Singapore indeed says it all. A multi-pronged strategy focussed on cleanliness,
private sector participation, infrastructure development, promotional
advertising and tourist facilitation would make all the difference in proper
positioning of the country as a tourist friendly nation in its own national
interest, is indeed the need of the hour.
