Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India needs tourists' that was published in Newsband

India needs tourists

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation said that international tourist arrivals in India grew from 14.57 million in 2016 to 15.54 million in 2017 and receipts increased from $22.42 billion to $27.36 billion. This is good news for India. Almost 300 leading tour operators from across the globe will be in New Delhi to participate in an event that focuses on marketing India as a destination.

The government is aiming for 20 million tourist arrivals over the next three years. India can reach it provided the Centre and the states take care of certain basic issues: security, infrastructure and connectivity.

The rush of tourists is good news. But India should be cautious. Look at what has happened to Barcelona and Venice. Fed up with constant streams of tourists, both places are now resisting them. Amsterdam is restricting short-term renting out of properties by residents after protests against the swamping of the city by tourists last year. Problems have beset Shimla, Ladakh and Goa in India where the unregulated tourist rush has led to serious environmental problems.

International tourist numbers surged by 5.2 % to nearly half a billion people worldwide in the first half of 2013. Europe enjoyed growth of 5.1 % in international tourist numbers in the six months. Asia and the Pacific reported growth of 6.2 % including an 11.6-% surge in tourists going to Southeast Asia. But results were weaker than anticipated in the Americas, which posted growth of just 2.2 %. International tourist numbers grew 3.1 % in North America but South America reported growth of just 0.3 % and the Caribbean had growth of a meagre 0.1 %. In Africa, international tourist arrivals rose by 3.8 %. In the Middle East, tourist numbers soared by 12.9 %.

As far as India is concerned, to make West Bengal the next tourism hub, the state tourism department will roll out a new tourism road map to promote cultural tourism and preserve heritage buildings in the state in the next six months. The state is considered the fourth most popular for domestic tourists and sixth for international tourists.

The concept of tourism is changing across the world. Its not about wildlife, scenic beauty and forests anymore. It’s about sharing your cultural milieu and way of life. We have to move from static tourism to cultural tourism. Identifying and converting old heritage buildings into tourist attractions would be of immense interest to foreign tourists, most of whom come from Europe and the US.

The state saw 235,000 foreign and 8,500,000 national tourist arrivals in 2012. There are ancient temples and stone architecture in Agra, Rajasthan or Delhi. But Bengal has colonial buildings and old mansions of rajas, nawabs and zamindars in Murshidabad, Bankura, Purulia and Malda. These, combined with their cultural and natural diversity offer something unique for all kinds of tourists.

The number of annual tourists crossing international borders will reach 1 billion soon. Chinese tourists, whose numbers increased 30 percent year-on-year, and their Russian counterparts, whose numbers swelled 16 percent, offer big opportunities for traditional tourist destinations like the Mediterranean. But Mediterranean countries may relax visa restrictions for visitors from nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China, where growth has outpaced recession-hit Europe and emerging middle classes are increasingly travelling outside national borders.

Tax hikes could scare away tourists. Many European countries have raised taxes as part of austerity programmes to get government finances back on track.

There is a good news. India has become chairman of UN tourism body. This was announced at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) conference at Gyeongju, South Korea. Tourism Minister Subodhkant Sahai said that it "signifies the confidence of various countries in India and the efforts of the Indian government in promotion of tourism in the country as well as across the globe in responsible and sustainable manner to bring in inclusive growth."   

It has been estimated that by the year 2016-17, the growth in the tourism sector would enable additional employment generation of around 25 million persons. There would be a need for additional 42 million skilled persons in hospitality sector alone. Hence India is giving a major boost to the skill development in the sector by harnessing both public and private sector educational and training infrastructure of the country. We are also encouraging our academic institutes to go in for MOU's with reputed counterparts of other countries for achieving academic excellence. Sahai has urged UNWTO to intensify its efforts in providing the support to member countries in developing a skill development framework based on successful best practices across the globe.