India’s tourist potential is much more than 10.3 million

Recently, the country was enthralled seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a memorable episode of the globally popular series Man Vs Wild.

The thrill of being one with wilderness in the breathtaking landscape of the Jim Corbett National Park was writ large on the PM’s face throughout the programme.

And while it was widely watched by millions across the country and in other parts of the world, few would know that the national park earned a revenue of Rs 1.26 lakh from the charges for entry of the crew and their stay arrangements for shooting the episode.

The park earns an average of Rs 10 crore annually from approximately 3 lakh visitors, which is a small fraction of the revenue of wildlife reserves like it worldwide.

Spurred by the popularity of the programme, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to make wildlife the theme of its Incredible India! campaign in the coming months. This is just a small illustration of the huge revenue potential that lies locked in the variety of offerings that tourism in India has to offer.

The need, however, is for policy planners in tourism to be proactive instead of reactive, and work towards a concerted vision towards making tourism a multi-billion-rupee industry in India.

I am struck by this thought every time I travel to Dubai. As the aircraft descends, the huge man-made oasis amid thousands of miles of barren desert stands out like a testimony of the vision that transformed this small port town with a population of 20,000 in the early 1900s, into its present avatar.

Beginning in 1980s, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, transformed the city into a technological and entertainment hub.

In 2018, Dubai received more than 15 million foreign tourists, whereas India, with its multiple world heritage sites and multi-faceted offerings like culture, cuisine, wellness, spirituality, wildlife and adventure sports, received 10.3 million.

What can we learn from Dubai? Let us focus on the basic requirement for promoting tourism — infrastructure. It is commendable that the government has given a lot of importance to infrastructure development in its first term, and has promised to continue doing so in the second as well.

The expansion of highways, waterways and aviation networks across the country will facilitate faster travel and contribute towards more tourist traffic.

The UDAN scheme is commendable in particular, as it will also open up new destinations in different parts of the country to domestic and foreign tourists.

A wealth of treasures of all descriptions lies unexplored in each of these. For example, there are a large number of heritage properties such as havelis and old palaces that are in a state of disrepair. They could be converted into heritage resorts through suitable private-public partnership (PPP) schemes.

The infrastructure development plan should also take into consideration connectivity to destinations that have high tourist potential, but are presently underserved.

Apart from the travel to and from these destinations, it is important to develop ancillary infrastructure around these destinations for providing better amenities to domestic and international tourists.

Adequate and comfortable accommodation for different categories of tourists to suit their budgets, local transport and adequate safety and security arrangements at the sites are some of the basics that will drive up tourist footfall.

Some innovative measures to drive private sector investment to develop the area around identified sites also need to be taken. For instance, specially-designated ‘tourism development zones’ akin to export promotion zones or software parks could be considered. State governments could identify and acquire land for such zones close to the lesser-known world heritage sites — there are 38 of them in India — of which only a handful receive substantial footfall.

Land in these zones could be allocated to private players for construction of hotels, development of theme parks and other tourist attractions that would augment tourist potential of the region.

The resulting employment generation and growth in local revenues will bring about prosperity for the affected regions and also help check the migration of local youth towards cities in search of jobs. An all-round win-win situation.

The author is chairperson, Bird Group