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Monumental protection

Priya Paul, chairperson, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels and Head, CII National Committee on Tourism, speaks on sustainable growth through responsible tourism

The CII National Committee aims to facilitate policy for infrastructure development for tourism and also inter-linkages between sector-specific tourism associations. It has been designed to serve as a platform for all key stakeholders and experts and acts as an interface amongst the government - both Centre and state - to suggest strategies for the overall development of the tourism industry in India.

The committee this year has been divided into four core groups that will help promote niche areas within the tourism industry. This has been done in order to ensure equal impetus. At this time when tourism will rise, what is important is that the entire sector learns how to manage it and to minimise the negative impact of tourism.

Here is where the challenge lies for the entire industry. The four key areas identified by CII are:

1) Responsibility and eco-tourism
2) Infrastructure matching tourism growth
3) Skill development in tourism sector
4) Heritage tourism - taking a legacy forward.

With growing tourism opportunities it is important to protect the environment. Therefore this committee will look at sustainable growth through responsible and eco tourism. CII suggests that the ministry of tourism should be a coordinating body for implementation of the eco-tourism policy and creation of a management plan. Its successful implementation can only be done by creating a national eco-tourism committee involving town planners, architects, civic bodies, CII and other local bodies.

Implementation has to be done at various levels beginning with eco-tourism centres, eco-tourism introduced as a subject in schools, etc. CII also suggests that the ministry of tourism moot the idea of getting subsidies on solar energy-based implements for the tourism industry. The government should have model guidelines for developers encouraging harmonious development. Even the tourists need to be made aware of this through websites and local guides.

CII recommends adopting carbon neutrality or its reduction, assisting in passing environmental laws and creating tourism courses through the World Wide Fund and government corporations so that these can be done in sync with the laws. We also want to implement strategies for environmentally friendly buildings and have each sector of the industry formulate an environmental management system.

The committee has been able to put a number of its recommendations into implementation, like the outsourcing of visa processing, vitalising of 35 airports, increased attention to inter-modal transport hubs and improved customer services, home-stay programmes and creation of land banks.

For this year the issues that remain to be addressed are creation of employment for the youth, providing minimum hygiene and sanitation in non-urban locations, value-for-money propositions for accommodation, transport, improving overall facilities in the cities, reinventing traditional arts, crafts, textiles and cultural flavours, encouraging domestic travel to rectify imbalance between outbound and inbound tourism, and of course bringing in public-private partnership.

However all this cannot be achieved without appropriate skills. Skill development in the tourism sector becomes one of the key focus areas. Appropriate skill sets decide the future of the industry as its survival is based on it. India with its young trained and developed force can help it sustain this boom.

According to CII, the training needs are divided into two categories the hospitality segment and the travel trade and tourism, and to add the latest, the aviation sector. Other areas that come up with the growth need assessment of their manpower needs. CII also believes that there is a strong need to revise the curriculum, with more short-term courses along with faculty development. Also, developing two hotel management and food craft institutes in each state will help the industry. First impact training for tourist guides, taxi drivers, tour operators' agents also becomes necessary. The aviation industry also needs better training institutes to meet the demand for pilots, cabin crew, ground handlers, etc.

It is India's age-old heritage that attracts tourists to India. Hence, it needs to be protected to offer a thorough insight into India. The CII's core group would work towards gathering the best examples of PPP in heritage tourism and implement the same here. It would design, develop and establish one PPP project for heritage tourism and one for the monumental site, proving that conservation standards can be maintained even after commercial use of the monument. It would also conduct a feasibility study of a special PPP fund or a CII creative India heritage tourism fund to facilitate private sector investment in heritage tourism and for providing loans and grants for funding heritage hotels, etc. However, many issues still remain - taxation policies, road links, airports and many more.