Spotlight

Tourism challenges for North India

Prof Narendra Kumar

Higher tourist arrivals, improved domestic business confidence, foreign investment inflows, rising consumerism, easier and economical finance for vacations, lower air tariffs, greater air connectivity and accelerating pace of business activity has resulted in rapid growth of the hospitality industry.

Besides, the low cost, high quality medical care is rapidly turning India into a 'global health destination'. Village tourism is also being promoted to spread tourism and its socio-economic benefits to rural and new destinations. India is now the destination of choice, not just for foreign tourists, but also for business travellers. This change in image has led to a boom in the hospitality sector.

The number of air travellers, expected to grow from the current 15 million a year to some 40-50 million in five years, would call for more hotel rooms to meet the needs of the domestic travellers. Railways are also gearing up to create budget hotels.

By 2010, there will be approximately one billion tourists a year, according to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). However, signs are that international tourist arrivals will overshoot these forecasts by some distance - creating dynamic opportunities for companies in the hospitality business. By 2010, we expect to see 791 million intraregional travellers and 216 million long haul travellers, as emerging markets such as China and India continue to grow and the new middle class, keen to spend disposable income on travel, make the most of low-cost carriers and the easing of visa restrictions.

Tourism is a key contributor to India's economic strength as it offers many opportunities for entrepreneurs, small businesses besides start-ups, home grown and rural businesses besides large organised corporates.

The "Incredible India" tourism marketing campaign has kick-started the phenomenal growth in domestic tourism. In 2005, 3.91 million foreign tourists visited India while more than 6 million Indians travelled abroad. The country earned Rs 25, 172 crore of foreign exchange in 2005. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India is one of the emerging tourism markets, having a potential of 24 billion dollars foreign exchange earnings through tourism by 2015.

All this augurs well for the North Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J& K and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. These states have accorded a high priority to tourism development in their plans and policies and have recognised tourism as an important instrument for overall economic development and employment generation.

Punjab is promoting its pilgrimage and heritage tourism. It has also developed a ‘freedom circuit’ which covers places associated with the martyrs and those sons of the soil who had made supreme sacrifices for the motherland. This is for the first time that a state government is doing so. All this will help in the creation of more accommodation as well as other facilities. Punjab is also developing some new areas which would further give a fillip to the demand for more rooms.

Haryana, which has pioneered the concept of highway tourism and has developed a number of excellent resorts is proposing to set up more establishments. It also plans to create Special Tourism Zones on the lines of Special Economic Zones, where all facilities like accommodation, recreation, rail, air and transport bookings, facility for overnight stay, postal, telephone, telegraph, shopping , handicrafts, will be made available. This unique concept will prove to be a landmark in the history of development of tourism not only in the region, but in the country itself.

The hill state of Himachal Pradesh and tourism seem to be made for each other. Its scenic beauty, ancient and hallowed pilgrimage centres, temples, palaces, forts, snow covered peaks, unique fairs and festivals, ethnicity, tribal lifestyles, adventure sport opportunities and above all the serene and peaceful atmosphere attracts more than six million domestic and more than hundred thousand international tourists every year. Tourist traffic, which was seasonal a few years ago, is now visiting the state throughout the year.

Tourism has undoubtedly brought great prosperity and wealth to the Himalayan state. The government is also encouraging development of tourism and hospitality industry by treated it as an industry and providing all types of concessions and incentives. Even the most economically sluggish areas have greatly benefited from tourism. Thousands of employment opportunities have been created which have checked the exodus of people from the hilly areas who were forced to go to the plains to work as menials in the most unhygienic conditions. Tourism has also greatly helped the revival of age-old handicrafts and cottage industries, besides diversifying their scope and utilising local raw materials.

But as they say tourism kills tourism. Unplanned development of tourism and mushrooming of hotels, guest houses and other accommodation has also had a very deleterious effect on the fragile ecology and environment. There is congestion and over crowding, cutting of the trees and pollution even at some of the most pristine sites. At many places, hotels and other facilities have come up without taking into consideration the local conditions.

Coming back to the hospitality industry, according to one estimate, the country would require an additional one lakh rooms in the next three years to meet the current shortage of accommodation. According to another estimate, three to five lakh rooms would be required by 2010. North India would also require a large number of rooms in next few years.

To meet this shortage, both the public and private sectors should synergise their efforts to provide more rooms. As the land cost is very high, the North Indian state governments should earmark sites for hotels. They should also build land banks and formulate hotel policies like the one recently announced by department of tourism of Rajasthan government. Local authorities like the municipal corporations should also be involved. It should also be noted that whatever accommodation is created, it should serve the purpose of all sections of society.

The author is professor at the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends, Chandigarh