India’s untapped tourism industry – Steps to be taken to exploit the potential
Making India’s an attractive tourist destination will bring in a plethora of benefits for the economy. The vast numbers of jobless youth will find work. Such an initiative will enhance the country’s image as a soft power.
For people around the world, India’s mindboggling diversity seems so intriguing. Few countries in the world have so many religions, languages, and cultural traditions co-existing more or less harmoniously for centuries. The country has nearly 43 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, thousands of temples, mosques, and Gurudwaras and Churches. Added to that, India has the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean washing its shores. Some of the things a visitor from abroad finds irresistible are the art and crafts of Kashmir besides its scenic beauty, the musical traditions of both the North and the South, the forests and the mountain ranges in the north and the west, and the culinary delights of the different parts of the country. They leave with pleasant memories that they share with their friends and in the social media. Sadly, this is not the case for every visitor. Many go back with bitter experiences.
Despite the rich mosaic of overlapping cultures, astounding heritage sites, and English-knowing population, many tourists invariably return from India with mixed feelings. The things that irritate them are the filthy towns and cities, the discourteous security staff at airports, the air-pollution, and the rush in public places. Added to that is the tendency of tour operators and shop owners to fleece the visitors. Unaccompanied women often suffer sexual attacks and verbal slurs. Unlike Kerala, where tourists are received and treated well, U.P and Bihar have anti-social elements who see the tourists as easy prey for exploitation. Broadly speaking, the people in whole of south India genuinely welcome and adore the foreigners while those in the north show distinct wickedness while interacting with them.
In the post-Covid world, tourism has soared by leaps and bounds. The overcrowding in reputed tourist destinations has forced the host countries to curb in-bound tourist traffic. In contrast, India struggles to boost its foreign tourists’ arrival due to reasons stated above. Dubai with not a single UNESCO World Heritage Site, and no cultural heritage now attracts vast number of overseas visitors by showcasing its petro-dollar driven opulence and its spick and span urban environment. Even small places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok hold some age old tourist attraction that India would envy.
When vigorous steps are taken to remove the ugly features of the country and enhance the tourist attraction of the country, these benefits will accrue.
- Enhanced foreign exchange inflow
- A boost in sales of India’s diverse offering of home-made arts and crafts. This will keep our under-utilized and under-paid artisans humming with activity and enjoying profits not seen before.
- Generation of very large number of unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled jobs for the unemployed youth. From porters to cab drivers to chefs to hotel service staff to managers, the demand for manpower will register a sharp and irreversible rise.
- Improvement in the country’s infrastructure in the hospitality sector.
- Quite importantly, India’s image as a soft power will get a boost.
However, making India environmentally clean will need humongous efforts in terms of political will and budgetary resources. Prime Minister Modi had launched the Swatch Bharat Yojana in the past few years, but it failed to gain momentum. Now, India suffers the ignominy of having a capital which suffers from dangerously polluted air during winter months. The Ganga and Yamuna have defied all efforts to become clean.
If we decide to clean up our cities, towns, rivers, ponds and lakes the country will gain in multiple fronts. The incidence of epidemics will decline. Pollution-free air, soil, and water will limit cardiac ailments.
The immediate gain of such a countrywide clean-up operation will, from the day one, generate umpteen number of unskilled, semiskilled and highly skilled jobs. Unemployment is a scourge that gets worse by the day casting a shadow on the political stability of the country. The problem aggravates corruption and crime. Fast job creation for the youth will come as a heavenly boon for the country. Companies making earth-moving machinery, road-sweeping machines, and waste-processing plants will find their order books swelling. For the tourists, India will look enticingly attractive. They will flood the tourist destinations in unprecedented numbers.
Getting a visa to visit India has long been a nightmare for foreigners due to bureaucratic hassles. Switching to e-visa regimen in recent times has cut the red tape greatly, but the government website is both slow and un-attractive. Countries like Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Kenya, South Africa etc. have all moved fast to either fully waive visa requirements or considerably simplify the process. India’s tourism ministry refuses to draw lessons from them.
Sadly, the government has cut budget allocation for tourism promotion. India spent Rs.1 billion in 2023 for tourism promotion. In 2024, this figure is down to just Rs.330 million! Such a budget cut defies logic. Inexcusable complacency on the part of the ministers and bureaucracy makes the people at the helm assume that India is such a destination that people from abroad will throng it on their own.
Fortunately for India, domestic tourism has been surging in the last three and four years. As expected, airlines, railways, hotels and taxi owners are all experiencing a healthy rise in their incomes. The GDP of the country also gets a push due to the spending of the travelers. However, inland tourism neither increases foreign exchange earnings, nor adds to India’s image as a place to visit by curious foreign visitors.
Prime Minister Modi’s government has set itself an ambitious target of bringing in one hundred million foreign tourists by the year 2047. To reach this target, overseas tourist inflow must register a rise of 15% year on year. This means there has to be a 100% rise in tourist inflow every year. It’s a tall order, but doable, if the government puts its heart and soul behind it.
Among the many creditable accomplishments of the Modi government, making India a clean, and friendly country for foreign tourists will prove to be one of the toughest targets. Arranging funds through budget allocation, bringing some of the opposition-ruled state governments on board, executing massive clean-up measures around the country, and educating the public to treat the tourists in a friendly manner are tough tasks, but Prime Minister Modi has the reputation of being a hard-hitter when the situation demands his attention. So, let’s be optimistic and hope that the Modi government will rise to the occasion.
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There is very little the Government can do unless the people of India bring forth a cultural transformation themselves. We need to take a leaf out of Japan’s book and make our kids form the habit of cleanliness right from their childhood. Homes and temples in India are generally exceptionally clean but for some strange reason, nearly everything else is dirty. India will change only when the general public begins considering India their mother and the entire nation, one grand home. We need to practice what we preach – ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.