Tourism: A select poker chip to bet ……

The Tourism sector in India is one of the most promising ones in the services industry segment with its contribution to GDP (more than 6%). The annual growth rate for this sector is projected to be more than 7.5% with a promise to generate employment at a faster pace.  With an upswing of foreign tourists (7m in 2015), India is now ranked 52^nd by Tourism and Travel competitive index and the Ministry does not miss the opportunity to pat its own back for introducing e-tourist visas for 113 countries. The analysis of foreign tourist arrival last year  (UK 23.81%, US 19.59%, Russia 9.33%, Australia 5.44%, Germany 4.86%, France 4.44% and Canada 4.4%) throws one common denominator that currency of each one of these countries, apart from Russian Ruble (devalued in 2015) has a conversion rate of more than Rs40 and that reiterates the fact that India is still a cheap tourist destination, apart from its gorgeous sea beaches, warm weather, a plethora of local cuisines and great historic monuments spread all over the country with added convenience of e-tourist visas. 

At the same time, one needs to take note of the footfall of foreign tourists and it is limited to only few cities like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata whereas every state in India is blessed with more than a dozen pristine spots worth visiting to cherish the beauty of nature in bucolic setting, for example, sea beach at BaliHarChandi, around 20kms away from Puri town in Odisha. The question to the Ministry is: what are we doing to identify such spots and promote tourism? Tourism promotion comes with providing surface transport connectivity and infrastructure comfort. An investment in these two alone will create employment opportunities where direct employment in Tourism (currently approx. 40m jobs) will double with the possibility of creating local entrepreneurship. The Ministry can support these local entrepreneurship through Govt’s ‘Start-up India’ platform while facilitating advertisement, networking and theme based marketing.

More than convenience and comfort, the other factor that the Ministry must give attention to, is confidence. Recent news of India being stuck off the list of safe travel destination recommended for Russian tourists (News agency- Interfax) is a noise that might have emanated from local issues in Goa and such dampers can certainly be avoided through inclusive partnership of local youth as entrepreneurs.

Tourism sector can turn out to be the next big bet in services industry provided the Ministry takes a holistic approach of convenience-comfort-confidence.