India needs to leverage it's rich cultural heritage to revive domestic tourism
Having gone through a turmoil during the nationwide lockdown last year, the Indian tourism sector has started to recover, slowly. By all accounts, domestic tourism is the route to drive recovery, especially with the onset of domestic flight, air bubbles and relaxations in government guidelines.
Covid-19 all but struck a deathblow to one of the great joys of modern life and deprived tourists of the joy of travelling to exotic destinations. But things begun to change with the partial lifting of the national lockdown.
In the corridors of power as well as in the business chambers consultation were afoot to take precautions to make things happen again on the tourism front though everyone is aware of the fact that it will be long before the old flow of people will happen like in the pre-pandemic times.
It is clear that, to help domestic tourism revive, it is imperative to reassess and reimagine how India can leverage its rich cultural and natural heritage and promote less-travelable destinations. It is apparent that secluded destinations that have managed to control the spread of the virus are becoming increasingly popular, provided safety and hygiene are ensured across the board.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
With the Covid-19 vaccine almost at hand, there is rising hope that tourism in India will slowly pick up the threads and move towards a positive growth-oriented future. The projections will perforce remain hazy. What we need to fall back for signposts is the figures for the three pre-Covid 19 years of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In terms of foreign exchange earnings from tourism, the figures are US$27,310 million in 2017 (a 19.1 per cent growth over 2016), US$28,586 million in 2018 (a modest growth of 4.1 per cent over 2017) and US$30,058 m in 2019 (a growth rate of 5.1 per cent over 2018). India’s share of world tourism receipts is US$30 billion out of a world total of US$1,478 billion which amounts to a share of 2.03 per cent with the United States heading the table with earnings of US$214.1 billion with a share of 14.49 per cent.
Tourist arrivals country-wise in 2019 shows that the largest were from Bangladesh, 2.5 million (23.8 per cent), followed by the United States, 1.5 million (13.8 per cent), 1 million (9.1 per cent) from the United Kingdom, Australia 36.7 lakh (3.36 per cent), Canada 3.15 lakh (3.22 per cent), China Mainland 3.39 lakh (3.11 per cent), Malaysia 3.34 lakh (3.06 per cent), Sri Lanka 3.3 lakh (3.03 per cent), Germany 2.64 lakh (2.42 per cent) and the Russian Federation 2.51 lakh (2.3 per cent). The numbers are quite impressive though the potential is many times over.
The number of domestic tourists, on the other hand, in 2017, 2018 and 2019 stands at 1,657.55 million, 1853.79 million, 2321.98 million respectively, with a growth rate of 2.6 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016, 11.8 per cent in 2018 over 2017, and 25.3 per cent in 2019 (provisional figure) over 2018.
It is a temptation for policy makers both in the government and in the private sector to think of ways of expanding the sector because the potential is so huge. The government recognises that there is scope for creating a large number of jobs and the multiplier effect is huge as well. As of present reckoning, 4.2 crore jobs have been created in the sector in 2019, accounting for 8.1 per cent of total employment in the country. It is also estimated that tourism contribution of tourism sector in 2019 in India was 6.8 per cent of the GDP at Rs13,68,100 crore (US$194.30 billion).
India also has received the third largest investments globally at US$45.7 billion in 2018, and since 2000, the cumulative investment inflow into hotel and tourism has been US$15.8 billion between April, 2000 and March, 2020.
DOMESTIC IS KEY
With lockdowns across the country slowly coming to an end, we are witnessing the first green shoots for domestic travel. There are early signs of recovery led majorly by self-drive holidays with residents of metro cities heading to their nearest leisure destinations.
“It’s going to be leisure and mid-market hotels that will lead the recovery here,” says Mandeep Lamba, President, South Asia, HVS Anarock. “Our knight in shining armour in India is going to be the domestic traveller, and everyone is going to start focusing on them like they have never done in the past.”
“Even with several initiatives in place, we have still not tapped into the full potential of leisure tourism in the country,” he continues. “There are several unexplored and underdeveloped beaches, wildlife sanctuaries, heritage sites and hill stations in India which can be developed into established leisure destinations but are lagging as they still lack last-mile connectivity and good infrastructure facilities, including good quality hotels. For instance, with the development of the Ram temple, Ayodhya is likely to become a major tourist destination going forward. Similarly, there are several unexplored beaches at driving distance from cities such as Chennai and Mumbai that can be developed as tourist hubs.”
The government initiatives in tourism sector have been noteworthy. Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel pointed out that even before the pandemic the Prime Minister already initiated ‘DekhoApnaDesh’ campaign and in the current situation the focus on domestic tourism under this campaign will help to revive the tourism sector of our country. Recently held Dekho Apna Desh webinars giving out details about destinations with historic and cultural heritage in the country were a way of keeping the tourism kettle boiling as it were to draw the attention of the potential tourists in India and abroad to the unknown, untapped riches of Indian heritage.
The government also expects that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that
people visit 15 ‘domestic tourist destinations’ as a way of knowing the country as well as encouraging domestic tourism would, in turn, generate revenues.
Recognising the economic importance of tourism and the need to open fresh avenues, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs1,200 crore for developing
tourism circuits in eight Northeast states under Swadesh Darshan. There was also budgetary allocation of Rs207.55 crore for developing the religious tourism circuit under Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) because the government is fully alive to the growth potential of pilgrimage in the tourism sector.
In addition, the government has also provided tax incentives by reducing GST on hotel tariffs from Rs1,001 to Rs 7,500 to 12 per cent, and those above Rs7,500 to 18 per cent.
Indian tourism is in the classic Catch-22 situation. It has huge potential but to tap the potential infrastructure needs to be developed, incentives provided, and investments made, and for some reason or the other these things are not available in good measure.
Right now, the tourism potential remains untapped, the infrastructure is inadequate, and the investments are much too modest.
There is also the other major requirement. Tourism can flourish only when the rest of the economy is doing well, there are enough well-paying jobs, and enough people have enough money to spend on travel. It is based on increased earnings through tourism that businesses will invest on hotels, restaurants and airline connectivity, and governments will spend on road and train connectivity to enable people to travel to the tourist destinations. Whenever economies get into trouble, tourism crashes.
PROPOSALS BY FAITH
In the run-up to Union Budget 2020-21, the industry body, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) have made recommendations to the government to boost tourism in the country as part of the economic revival post-Covid 19. Many of the recommendations would make the working of tourism easier and help the economy grow.
One of the recommendations is for a high-powered National Tourism Council, with the Prime Minister as chairman and the Union Tourism Minister as co-chairman, and chief ministers of the states as well as Union Cabinet ministers as members. The argument behind the proposal is that tourism spans several ministries, and there is need for a nodal body which could help streamline policies and processes. There is little doubt that there is need for an apex body like the National Tourism Council to coordinate things and give due importance to the tourism sector because it can push India into the high growth economy which it has done for so many countries, from Iceland to Thailand.
The other suggestion of FAITH is more meaningful which is creating a Rs2,000-crore corpus for a National & Cultural Heritage Restoration Fund which would keep the natural tourism habitat like white water
river rafting, desert safaris, mountaineering in good conditions through proper ecological guidelines, and the same kind of preservative actions for historical sites like forts and museums, temples and historic caves with paintings.
The other interesting proposal is income tax exemption for domestic tourists up to Rs 1.5 lakh. It is an absolutely a good idea, which will encourage more people to travel inside the country.
While there is much that governments need to do to boost tourism in the country, there is need for the tourism industry to create protocols and standards of its own to upscale the quality factor. The reason that tourists, both domestic and foreign, would look for is quality service and reliability. Right now, quality service is available mostly in the luxury segment of tourism. But, moving forward, the larger number of tourists who belong to the medium and small budget segment too would like certain minimal service standards especially from small restaurants and the small lodges that dot holiday destinations with their drabness writ large on their premises.
