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DEPARTMENTAL STRATEGY
FOR
MINISTRY OF TOURISM
VINOD ZUTSHI
J. P. PRAKASH
1. Introduction and growing importance of tourism
2. Incredible India
India has a huge potential for tourism and has been marketing its tourism
potential aggressively during the last one decade. Earlier the policy of tourism(1982)
envisaged an environment of closed economy with strict licensing procedure and did not
envisage significant role for the private sector and foreign investments. To be a part of
the tourism revolution taking place across the world, India came out with its National
Tourism Policy in 2002. The policy recognized the need to change strategies and tools of
its machinery of implementation to partake in global tourism revolution since with the
earlier policy India’s share of world tourism traffic remained static at 0.38%. The policy
of Central Govt and sustained efforts of various tourism-rich States brought good
results and by 2008, India’s share in the world tourist arrivals increased to 0.58% and
its ranking increased to 41. However, the target announced under the National Action
Plan for Tourism in May, 1992 to increase India’s share in the world tourism market to
1% by the 2000 is yet to be achieved.
The following table which compares India’s share and rank with the
international tourist arrivals provokes us to think as to why despite being such a
large country with a variety tourism destinations, has a dismal share in world
tourism:
The following table-15 shows that even smaller countries like Turkey, Ukraine
and Italy have higher tourist arrivals than large country like ours.
The implications of low tourist arrivals can be seen from the following table-16 which
shows that while USA earned 110 billion $ from international tourism, India got a
meager 11.7 billion $ from international tourism receipts. The effect that higher
international tourism receipts can bring to foreign exchange earnings and to the
economy need not be emphasized.
.
World Tourism and Trade Council (WTTC) has predicted that the number
of world travelers would go up to 1600 million by the year 2020 as against 922
million registered in the year 2008. Unless annual growth rate of foreign and
domestic tourist registers sizeable increase in the forthcoming years, India will
not be able to seize the opportunity of bright prospects in tourism sector
predicted for the next decade.
There has to be a specified target of Annual growth rate both for Foreign &
domestic tourist arrivals instead of only having quantitative target at
the end of five year. The annual target growth rates decided for the
country should be based on annual growth rates expected in various
States & UTs of the country.
One of the most sudden changes in our world that has come to stay
with us is the communication technology. With internet becoming
the norm rather than an exception, the strategy cannot afford
not to take into account the way it has changed our behavior.
Therefore, one of the priority area of attention should be a
comprehensive portal which is user friendly, provides at one
place an ‘end to end service’ for the needs of a tourist. The
present website is no help for any tourist to actually plan and get
any complete, meaningful or end to end service from MOT’s
website.
This way MOT would be able to strengthen the states and feed in the
exact requirements of a given state.
Core Component- 2
The Vision
The strategy generally contains a clear statement of the vision. The vision is
clearly understood and can be successfully explained. However, it is felt
that the vision statement:-
Does not create a picture of the desired future and lacks mentioning in
terms of end results.
Therefore, the following points need to be added to the vision statement.
“To develop India as one of the most preferred destination in the next decade”
Core Component-3
Long term Outcome goals and results that are required to achieve the
vision
The long term outcome goals (as listed in outcome budget 2010-11) and
results are listed and by and large defined. However, some of them:
Goal No. 1: “To increase the share in international tourist arrivals and
receipts”
Comment: “The target increase in the share in international tourist arrival s &
receipt should be well defined specifying annual target growth rate
for both Foreign and Domestic tourists for the next 5-10 years.
Goal No. 2: “To evolve a framework which is Government-led, private-sector
driven and community welfare oriented.
Goal No. 3: “To have world class tourism infrastructure in the country through
integrated development of tourism destinations and circuits”
Goal No. 4: “To have active participation and investment from the private sector
in the tourism infrastructure development”.
Comment: “To catalyse and facilitate larger private sector involvement in all
sectors of tourism industry including tourism infrastructure. To
open additional service areas to private sector and promote Public
Private partnership, wherever required”.
Comment: “Special attention for infrastructure in N.E region and J &K and
other lesser known destinations having tourism potential”.
Goal No. 7: “To establish an effective linkage and close coordination with
Ministries of Culture, Civil Aviation, Environment & Forests,
Railways, Home, Road Transport and Highways, etc”.
Comment: “To have regular linkage and work in close coordination on regular
basis with Ministries of Culture, Civil Aviation, Environment &
Forests, Railways, Home, Road Transport and Highways, etc
Goal No. 12: “To give due importance to Domestic Tourism, particularly
tourism connected with pilgrimages”.
Goal No. 16: “To conduct effective training programmes for capacity building
of tourism service providers, including tourist guides training
programme and to increase employability of existing tourism
serviceproviders”.
Goal No. 17: “ To put in place a system of training and professional education
with necessary infrastructural support, capable of generating
manpower to meet the needs of the tourism and hospitality
industry, both quantitatively and qualitatively”
Additional Goals
Goal No. 20: “ To ‘extend the stay/duration’ of tourist and, therefore, realize
greater tourism expenditure through creation of additional satellite
tourist destinations and through integrated tourism(package)
services”.
Goal No. 21. Attempt should be made to harness the presence of foreign
business man or ‘other purpose visitor’ into what could be termed as
“add-on” tourism where a person or a team on business visit is offered a
suitable and convenient package tourism according to their needs and
time availability. For e.g. in Singapore they have developed packages even
for a transit visitor transiting through Singapore for durations as short
as 4 Hrs!
Goal No. 21: “Project ‘Incredible India’ as an ‘All year round” ‘Tourist
destination(365 days destinations) instead of projecting India as
‘September to March’ destination. Smaller and lesser
destinations that will diversify the tourist traffic, mitigate the problems
of bunching into limited areas should be identified and vigorous
marketing taken up for them. Examples could be Bhim-Bheteka (to be tied
up with Khjuraho) or Chilika (to be tied up with Puri and Konark etc.
Component 4
SWOT Analysis
Detailed SWOT analysis has not been made by the Department as a part of
strategy paper. Department has only identified certain strengths and
weaknesses.
(1) STRENGTHS
(iii) USPs
(2) WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
4. Greater scope in Theme based Tourism like Eco, Rural, Adventure &
Wellness Tourism
6. With more liberal sky policy Airline seating capacity can be increased to
match Tourist arrivals
THREATS
3. Next door Tourism friendly countries of South East Asia posing great
challenge viz. Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia
The solutions & policy options as proposed by MOT during the next 5 years are
summed up and analyzed as follows:-
In addition to (viii) Agenda points, the following policy options/action points need
to be added in order to meet the desired strategy and goals:
Airline seating capacity, which has grown in the last few years due to
liberal sky policy, should not become a limiting factor or a bottleneck, in the
growth of Tourist Arrivals or Tourist movement.
(b) To persuade state governments & Civil Aviation Ministry to make Air
Strips & Helipads (owned by State Govt. & AAI) operational and
available for Tourism services.
(v) Creating land banks by involving State Govts. and local bodies
(Urban & village)
(vi) Promoting ‘outsourcing’ of Tourism services to private sector.
(i) PPP by involving Rural Cooperative bodies and Private Sector (Raj
Gramya in Rajasthan)
(g) Close monitoring & review (PERT) and quality evaluation of CSS
projects, sanctioned by MOT. (Presently, it is limited only to
Collection of utilization certificate from the State Tourism
Departments).
(i) To bridge the gap between Demand & supply of Hotel Bed capacity (the
present gap is almost 60000 quality rooms), policy measures need to be taken for
time bound and targetted growth rate of Hospitality industry. These could
include:-
(i) Review of FAR/FSI & development charge for hotels through out
the country particular in Tourism cities.
(j) Public – Private - Partnership
Actionable agenda (xvii points) under the strategy plan are appreciable and
largely fulfill the Goals/objective of the strategic plan, as also mitigate the woes
of Travel & Trade industry. Few additional policy option as listed below, would
further facilitate Travel Trade Services:-
(1) MOT shall promote Foreign Language programmes in the private sector/
universities/colleges for Tourist guides and personnel involved in hospitability
services.
Marketing & promotion of India Tourism should involve all Private and
Govt. players of Travel Trade under common umbrella. Travel Trade,
(both govt & private) should unitedly work & represent India unitedely
in Foreign Marts & Exhibitions, instead of representing individually
and in fragmented form.
MOT shall ensure & facilitate a regular capacity building programme for
such service provides, involving IIHMs, Food Craft Institutes, State
Institutes of Tourism Management, private sector Entrepreneurs,
players of Travel Trade, Universities, colleges and other private
education institutions.
High quality Public Transport & private Taxi services in the urban area to
be promoted in consultation with Transport and Urban
Development Ministries.
The strategic plan prepared by MOT covers most of the possible policy options
and strategic initiatives, very comprehensively and all options covered in
strategic paper need to be put into action. However, there can be few more
interventions to promote India Tourism, in the following manner:-
(3) Integrated promotion campaign with Private Tourism players (PPP model)
(4) Regular IEC campaign for “Unfriendly and Inhospitable Masses of India”
(on the lines of Atithi Devo Bhava) not only for being friendly to the visiting
tourists but also to educate for the following:-
(e) Beggars
(i) Sharing Information with information seeking Tourists & last but
not the least.
(j) SMILE WHEN YOU SEE A TOURIST
(5) MOT shall prepare a long term calendar plan for the following for timely
publicity & promotion:-
(b) A five year calendar of National Tourism events like fairs, festivals,
Religious events etc.
Besides, following additional Policy options under the heading of new tourism
products is suggested:
(1) ECO-TOURISM:
Involve PRI and Cooperative net works to partner with Private sector in
developing and operating Rural Tourism projects (e.g. RAJGRAMYA)
in Rajasthan.
DIWALI
DUSSEHRA FESTIVAL
HOLI
KUMBH
The Ministry has identified large number of policy options in the strategic plan.
Some additional options are:-
(b) Mass Awareness & regular IEC programme to be run by MOT, State
Govts and Local Bodies for sensitization of Masses & educating them
to be Tourism friendly. To explore the possibility of including the
subject or chapter of “India Tourism” in school curriculum.
VII MARKET RESEARCH
The system of recording Tourist arrivals & other dates both FTAs &
DTAs is far from satisfactory. An improved system on ‘MIS’
pattern shall be developed with cooperation of State Tourism
Departments and private players.
VIII MONITORING
The strategy paper of M/o tourism for the next five years does not
incorporate an explicit prioritization of the proposed policies. No priority level
like high, medium and low have been assigned. The Departmental strategy does
include the planning template which gives the project and timeline for some of
the activities and sub-activities within the Ministry. However, these are not the
timelines for various policy options identified by the Ministry/Department.
From amongst the various policy options which have been identified by the
Department in its strategy plan and from the additional policy options identified
by the ‘group’ under the core components 1 to 5, following prioritization of policy
options are suggested based on guideline provided for developing department
strategy.
High Priority
1 Fixing of annual growth rate target for foreign and domestic tourists
8 Bridging the gap between demand and supply of hotel bed capacity
by taking aggressive policy measures and specified target annual
growth rate.Creating land banks and Revisiting tax structure.
IMPLEMENTATION MODULE
The strategy action plan devised by the M/o Tourism does not contain an
explicit module on implementation. Although the strategy action agenda points
have been comprehensively listed under various sub-heads of tourism sector,
however, there is no clear implementation plan. The RFD has identified the
approach and time lines for some of the activities but that is limited to
‘spending the allocated budget’ items. But largely the RFD prepared by
Tourism Department revolves around only the implementation of
budgetary allocation and ensuring fulfillment of mandatory legal &
administrative activities normally done by the Department every year. It
is suggested that the activities (or at least the not so finance dependent
activities like the coordination and monitoring related activities) should
be clearly spelt out in the RFD and the timeline and the officials entrusted
with the activities should be put out. For e.g. instead of saying that ‘all
the applications received for accreditation of hotels shall be
disposed/completed’ one could indicate on the lines of citizen charters
that applications whenever received shall be decided upon within 1 month
of its receipt. This would lend the RFD to more meaningful monitoring.
To summarize, the RFD document prepared for the period for the 2010-11,
therefore, needs to be addressed more on the policy options and strategy plan
rather than on the routine administrative activities which the
Ministry/Department implement as a part of its normal exercise.
The group suggests that the prioritization made under core component- 6
indicated in this paper should be the basis for preparing an implementation
plan. Obviously high priority items identified by the group need to be not only
addressed on priority basis but also monitored closely at regular intervals of
time. Similarly, medium priority options and low priority options need to be
reviewed continually.
The section 2 of the RFD where the functions get translated into
activities needs more clarity and sharper focus. Each of the policy options
should be broken up into measurable activities and a “PERT Chart” specifying
sub-activities involved and timelines drawn for each of the sub-activities should
be drawn up along with fixing of responsibility for each sub-category.
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