The Ministry of Tourism is working on an elaborate plan to tap the enormous potential that India has to become a major global tourism hub. As per the plan, the government will be rolling out 40 to 45 projects by the end of 2018, Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, told The Sunday Guardian in an exclusive interview. According to Billa, a 1996 batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, who was appointed to his current post in the ministry in November 2014, the projects to be rolled out by the end of 2018 include projects like the Swadesh Darshan scheme, under which 13 thematic circuits have been identified for development. They include the development of the heritage circuit in different zones of the country that would connect heritage sites in the zone or states, like the Buddhist circuit, coastal circuit, North East India circuit, Himalayan circuit, among many others.The Ministry of Tourism will also launch the Incredible India campaign version 2.0 very soon, which would be a more developed version compared to its earlier avatar. However, Billa did not provide details about what the campaign would be like.
Asked about the hurdles that prevent India from being a major tourist destination, Billa told The Sunday Guardian, “For marketing India as a tourist destination, we come across this problem that India has too many products to offer and, therefore, tourists get overwhelmed, making it difficult for them to decide. We, therefore, need to undertake specific campaigns that would be tailor-made and that is what we are looking at for Incredible India 2.0. Apart from this, another thing that we need to do is prioritise our products because we cannot sell all the products at one time. Therefore, we have termed 2018 the ‘year for adventure tourism’. We also need to encourage the development of world class infrastructure and safe public transport system for enhancing tourism in the country.” According to ministry officials, though the tourism industry in India has an enormous potential to grow manifold, it is experiencing a slow rate of growth as the budgetary allocation for the ministry has been meagre—a paltry 0.9% of the total budget for the financial year 2017-2018. As per the annual report of the Ministry of Tourism, the tourism industry in India has experienced an average growth rate of 4.5% since 2014, with about 88.9 lakh foreign tourists arriving in the country in 2016, a marginal increase by 8 lakh foreign tourists compared to 2015. Besides this, safety and security of tourists have also been a cause of major concern as any sort of assault or attack on a foreign tourist sends out a wrong message across the globe. Instances like the way a Swiss couple was attacked near Fatehpur Sikri in Agra earlier this week by a group of men, have not helped the tourism industry in India. Speaking on safety and security issues, Billa said, “This has been a cause of concern and the safety and security of any tourist is a prime importance for all of us. We have been trying to address this issue by talking to the states to provide for a tourist police force. We also have a designated 24X7 helpline number 1363 that operates in 12 languages where any tourist in distress can call for help. Not only this, the most important thing is that people’s attitudes towards tourists have to change. We need to sensitise them and make them realise the fact that tourists are our guests and they should be treated with respect.” Apart from the circuits, projects like PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spirituality Augmentation Drive) would include development of all pilgrimage sites in the country in terms of infrastructure and tourist-friendly centres.
Schemes like HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana) that are aimed at preserving and revitalising the “soul and unique character of the heritage cities in India”, have also been sanctioned by the Ministry. Billa also added that India needs to tap the niche tourist market that could contribute hugely to the Indian economy in terms of bringing in vital foreign revenue—an area that has seen a slowdown.
The tourism industry provides a total of 5.8% of the total jobs in the country, and contributed about 9.6% of the total GDP in 2016.