On its sixty year journey young India is marching ahead with challenging times in tourism. In the days of early 1950’s , reaching India was difficult. Very few airlines were connecting India and cruise liners would take weeks. Now over 70 international airlines are directly providing connectivity from their respective countries. Even earlier tourists were coming from very selected markets. Now it is the preferred destination from all most major traffic generating countries. The quality and the quantity of Indian tourism products has gone a sea-change. Its variety and affordability part has been globally recognized. Tourism also got its due recognition in the National Five Year Planning with higher budget outlays. From just Rs. 2 crores budget in early fifty’s, it has crossed over Rs. 10,000 cores in the 11th five year plan allocations. Earlier thinking of public in general was tourism is an elitist activity. Public in general have now understood the value of tourism in creating jobs, earning foreign exchange for the country, better global understanding of India and all the more it’s contribution for poverty alleviation, upliftment of the women power and “National Integration”. People are now more tourist friendly. State governments which earlier used to give a very low priority to tourism, are now using tourism, as the main instrument for economic development in the states.
This change in the attitude toward tourism is the biggest achievement of Indian tourism on its 60th anniversary of independence. All the more earlier tourism had hardly any reference in the Independence Day address of Hon’ble Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort while unfurling the Tri colour of India. Now a definite note on tourism as vehicle for National Integration, Rural Development, International relation and poverty alleviation is announced with priority to tourism by Hon’ble Prime Minister. This is a big recognition for the practitioners of tourism who had been pleading the Govt. decision makers to put priority to tourism. Those visionaries looked at tourism as the only vehicle for nation’s balanced development. Tourism at its 60th year saw a new India with varied opportunities in every segment of human necessities. Accommodation sector made marked improvements since its small beginning in 1950’s. Earlier deluxe hotels very few and budget hotels were just existed by name purely for use by domestic tourists. It was only in the seventies that a new crop of five star appeared. Ashok Group (ITDC) made series of hotels in Delhi, Bangalore, Kovalam, Chennai and private sector like The Oberoi, The Taj Group, ITC Welcomgroup became symbol of luxury hotels in India. This also changed in the quality of tourists coming to India. Early sixties saw hippy back packers pouring into India especially in Goa, Kashmir & even Southern India but since seventies saw middle level executives and they opted for classy hotels.
Still India was thought in the early 50’s as transit destination and more or less India attracted tourists on transit who used to take stop ever packages between 3 to 7 days. Lack of infrastructure and air connectivity were the main bottleneck areas. Still the visitors did not number many, as late as 1951 international arrivals numbered 16, 829. Toward the end of the century the figure crossed 2.50 million and now approaching 5 million mark just doubled the figure of the last century. It is not a small achievement taking into consideration the series of negative events of the last century with 9 -11 Sept. events in USA, Earthquake in India, Socio-religious events in India, Bird flue etc., which greatly affected traffic movements. Foreign exchange earnings too had better growth which now crossed $ 5 billion from a small beginning in 1950’s ($in). It is not the revenue earnings the mattered. It is how tourism has contributed to the national (GDP) and employment since last decade is of prime importance. Also tourism with least investment has brought a sea-change in country’s growth plan, In India GDP growth in period between 1995-2004 was averaging 6.21% whereas annual average increase in domestic and international travel has been 11.2% and 8.7% respectively and since then the GDP growth is progressively increasing. In its report of Brazil, Russia India, and China (BRIC), they have predicted India will be amongst the foremost growth centres of the world by 2020.
By mid fifties “Aviation became the preferred mode of transportation Air India played its glorious role by connecting India from five continents. Air India’s Maharaja was holding the glory in the skies projecting India’s’ warmth & hospitality. It was a symbol of “Experience of India in the sky popularly branded as “your Palace in the sky in true sense. Alas ! Air India due to lack of vision by the policy makers lost its position and now even do not find place in the best ten airlines of the world. In the 60 years of India’s independence now combined Air India and Indian is going to bring the difference as India’s national carrier. New modern aircrafts are being put into service with new look crew members. Air India – Indian will play its national role in the aviation sector is the wish of all travel trade partners and people in general. Air India is our national pride.
The real change in the aviation sector which brought a revolution in the domestic air travel sector is the growing number of domestic airlines in India. This was not thinkable even decade back. In the international sector, to combat seat capacity problem, the year 2005 and 2006 saw Govt. of India approving additional traffic right to countries like USA, UK, South Africa. Especially USA Carriers are now authorized to operate to any airport in India New flights from UK to India can cover new routes and even new destinations. All these have opened up new destinations like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Goa, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Thiruvanthapuram and Kannur. All these increased availability of air seats capacity match the growing demand for India holiday destinations. Earlier in the 1950’s it was the lack of seat capacity brought stagnation in the tourist arrival figure which hovered around at one million plus mark for about a decade. Elimination of market control and fair competitive opportunities have shown positive results. This made significant impact on growth and expansion of both trade & tourism. Atleast in tourism sector it enabled Govt. to achieve average 15% year on growth since the beginning of new millennium.
With the new aviation policy to be launched shortly it is heartening to note that the eligibility norms for domestic airline seeking to fly aboard are also set to be relaxed and that may bring a real boom to Indian tourism.
In the fifties, Indian airlines, the govt. owned air carrier which had a monopoly of domestic services and introduced modern airbus in its fleet and provided tourist opportunity to fly beyond Agra-Jaipur to many other parts of India. But services were erratic & delays were part of the India Airlines operations.
Since last few years the Indian civil aviation sector is offering major opportunities as a result of some key policy changes and govt. allowed private operations in domestic sector. This has now graduated to bring a fiercely competitive private-public airlines and several consumer oriented offerings. New airlines have made entry into this sector. There are many more proposed joint ventures, mergers & tie ups. New airports are bring planned & developed to service the growing aviation sector. The boom in domestic tourism is the success story of domestic aviation industry where every year one or other airlines join & start operations giving air connectivity to many new places where earlier due to non availability of any such air connections, inspite of having quite a number of interesting tourist sites they could not attract tourists. Now, tourism has reached to hinterland cities. With this development lot of infrastructure has also come up to these places to service the growing demand of tourists. It has also helped moved tourists to different parts of India rather than concentrating at the known golden triangle circuit or metro cities only. In this respect no frill airlines, Low cost carriers (LCC) with affordable prices have opened up places like Surat, Vododara, Kolhapur, Bhavnagar, Jabalpur, Raipur and many North Eastern State capitals. More importantly the benefits of tourism has now reached to remote areas/backward areas. With tourism activities there are now more jobs for locals and this has contributed much for poverty alleviation in these remote areas. Thus tourism has become more people oriented activity than restricted to some rich entrepreneurs which was in the early parts.
In the 1950’s flow of money to tourism sector was very limited and not much development could be taken up due to other priorities in the Govt. sector like Education, Health, Water supply, Defence need, but since last decade with the opening of Indian economy for foreign investments and from the beginning of this millennium there has been visible solid progress and breakthrough for Infrastructure development with foreign direct investment (FDI) and this has been possible more with the growing aviation business & improved air connectivity.
Ministry of Tourism also had a very small beginning in the 1950’s. The then had Prime Minister known as “Architect” of modern India visualized the immense potential of tourism for national growth. He rightly thought that tourism could be the most effective way to involve people’s participation & thus tourism could be channelised as vehicles for global peace and mutual understanding. Specially for a country like India where so many language, religion exist as also for international cooperation & to get recognition internationally he had authorized the creation of a cell for tourism activities in the Ministry of Transport which in course of one decade time developed into a full pledged Ministry with a cabinet minister in charge. The first cabinet minister to lead tourism was great philosopher and Administrator Dr. Karan Singh.
It was his consistent efforts that in 1980’s India moved from transit destination to regular tourist destination with diversification of tourism products in India. Initiatives for diversification was engineered by Pt. Nehru himself with emphasis on infrastructure development and resort concept Indian tourism was taken away from golden triangle or to say moved from the concept of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur to leisure concept. It was at this time the flagship hotel of India- Hotel Ashok in Delhi came up which was constructed to accommodate delegates to UNESCO. India’s first convention hall Vigyan Bhawan also built ushering in for the possibilities of convention tourism for the first time. Since then several hotels, convention venues with state of art facilities have come up in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Ahmeabad and India hosted many international events like PATA Convention in 1978, Annual Convention of World Tourism organization, WTTC convention and many professional bodies like international publishers, lawyers, Doctors, Engineers all had been holding the conference & convention in India regularly.
Major diversification was seen with the construction of Gulmarg Winter Sports project (Ski Resorts) in Jammu & Kashmir, Kovalam Beach Resorts, (Kerala), Temple Bay Resorts in Mamallpuram, (Tamilnadu) and Buddhist circuits development through Mater Plans at Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Sanchi, Ajanta- Ellora etc. India was presented more as leisure & adventure tourism destination which was in demand for holidayers in global market. India’s affordability & value for money was the marketing thrust and it did work. Himalayan experience with the adventure activities placed Jammu & Kashmir as one of the prime holiday destinations in India. In the second half of the seventy’s and early eighties also saw the rise of classy hotels specially coinciding with Asian Games in New Delhi. The Govt. offered special incentives for construction of hotels in the capital. This signified the expansion phase of hotel chains ( which continuous even today due to common wealth games in 2010). All hotels be the ITDC, The Oberoi, Le Meridian, Bharat Hotels, committed for large scales investments. Still India will have acute shortage of accommodation about 50,000 till 2010, through many new hotels are at various stages of completion. Many new chains have come into the accommodation scene which can provide 1700 rooms maximum on completion. Govt. has evolved Incredible India Bed & Breakfast Scheme which provide accommodation & stay with families & that is going to provide about 10,000 rooms by 2010 ( if it is taken up with right earnest). Ministry also diversified tourism products with wildlife tourism by constructing forest lodges at Bharatpur, Dandeli, Corbett Bandipur, Sasangir, Kanha, simlipal, Betla, and India got recognition as wildlife destination since the mid seventies. Trained elephants at Parks, Interpretation centre, forest guides, fibre boats for cruise at water front areas in Wildlife Parks, viewing towers were added. In this wildlife packages in the new millennium Govt. of India Ministry of Tourism added rural tourism experience by promoting Farm tourism, Agro tourism, with local art, crafts, cuisine. It is now a big selling proposition in overseas markets. Other segments added in Indian tourism scene included Medical tourism, Spiritual tourism, and Wellness tourism with Ayurvedic Rejunvation Packages. In Himalayan Region soft trekking, high attitude mountain trekking, River Rafting & other Aquaticsports – wind Surfing, kayaking, canooing, under sea snorkeling and all these made Indian adventure tourism product globally acceptable. It attracted younger groups between 25-40 age from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scandinavian countries. For adventure oriented tourism to Indian Himalayas at Ladakh, Kullu, Manali, Nainital, almora – Pindari glover, Dalhousie – Dharamshala etc. were actively promoted which were hardly known to tourists in the early 1960’s. Sports tourism was emphasized with development of golf resorts. A new class of enthusiasts interested in golfing holidays now started flowing to India. All these activities have opened up new areas & generated jobs for local people & development a degree of specialization by our trade partners like Tour operators, travel agents, excursion agents etc. Beach tourism gave new dimension to India tourism since 1976 with the operation of charters in Goa. Charters are now operating to Kerala, Tamilnadu at many other places. Though most of the charters are toward our beach resorts in Goa & Kerala. Ministry of Tourism since has liberalized the charter policy and charter business has proved to be a booming business from selected markets.
Inspite of all these new segment, India tourism’s main forte is its cultural tourism. India is known for its architecture & art forms as well as life style. With the renewed forces globally in this special attraction of India, in the present policy of the celebration of sixty years of Indian’s independence, India tourism presenting India with its all diversity and cultural glamours in UK/USA, China with India New look. Festivals from July onwards is showcasing India in the market showcasing India. In Europe is our principal market for Khajuraho, Konark, Kanchipuram, Belur-Halebid, Hampi and with this an added interest is our Palaces, Forts & Maharajas.
Since late eighties this trend has encouraged increased tourist arrivals. Govt.’s liberalized policy for FDI’s have brought in Marriot, Accor, Ramada, Hilton, Best Western, Quality Inn, Choice all high profile chains to do business of tourism in India which two decade back could not even dream. It was only Oberoi, ITC, Welcomgroup, were counted for luxury hotel experience in India and which had global recognition.
The Ministry of Tourism which had regional overseas offices could not be very effective because of budget constraints. The activities got further curtailed with closing down of seven overseas offices and no new offices were opened in the last decade. However, this was compensated with powerful & visible “Incredible India” campaigns globally. India now started getting recognition as a major tourist destination with this exclusive India Branding since last two years. Earlier the campaigns were very generic & hardly could generate impact. All the more these were in Black & white which could not convey the colours of India. India is always a riot of colour but budget constraints did not allow investing in colour campaign, what to talk of electronic medium.
Also it was always complex jobs to have one precise identity for a multi product destination like India where each state itself is a product. Incredible India was envisaged to bring a balance to this unique position by placing Incredible India as main board on which state promoting their products as sub-brands. In the mother brand it focused India as a journey of mind and soul, as a journey of five senses, journey of self-discovery and journey of self fulfillment and states putting their products dovetailing to this unique experience of India. This was further strengthened by forming Public-Private Partnerships and State Governments joined with development of special thematic products. The results are also visible. Earlier, it was a tiring job to motivate people to come to India. Specially two decades back, the perception was very negative with Dust, epidemic, flood/famine, lack of infrastructure, over taxation, political interference etc. Now lonely planet in a survey of 167 countries selected India as one of the five top destinations of the world. Even world tourism organization (UNWTO) has termed India as fastest growing business opportunity. Where as average world tourism growth is around 5%, India Tourism achieved 14% growth since the beginning of the new millennium.
The Nineties began with new challenges & opportunities for tourism. Most of the Indian states & union territories started recognizing tourism as the main force for economic growth & framed tourism policy & started giving tourism an industry status. Kerala, HP, Orissa, Rajasthan States were very progressive in this regard & formed real private – public partnerships for infrastructure development and diversification of tourism products in the respective states – leading travel guide book.
There was time of set back for Indian tourism in 1990’s, with terrorism in Kashmir, Punjab, North East & tourism led economy Kashmir had real bad time from which it is now limping back to normalcy. The deterioration of law & order problem with Riots (Babri Masjid demolition issue) Earthquakes (Bhuj/Kutch Region), Bombay Bomb blast, Garhwal hills flood etc. brought a bad patch of tourism to India. But tourism has resilience power. With Crisis Management Guidelines at place, Government recovered very quickly from these negative publicity specially which it had in the 1990’s with so called plague in Surat. Nineties also saw Government of India, Ministry of Tourism promoting circuits concept tourism – with focus on selected circuits like Buddhist circuit, Himalayan circuit & over 61 such circuits were identified for integrated development by pooling resources of the central sector, State Sector & private sector. Pilgrim tourism was also focused along with construction of budget accommodation in the form of yatriniwas, yatrikas, and extended financial assistance to Dharamsals, Musfirkhanas, choultries etc. All these put domestic tourism at forefront in tourism development programme. With 369 million domestic tourists criss crossing with in the country in the 90’s talk about the potential it holds in the country. The upward trends of the nineties now put domestic tourism to reach 400 million figures. Similarly outbound which was just 2 million in the 1980’s have jumped to 7 million by 2006 and approaching 8 million by 2007.
Some of the things which were unthinkable 50 years ago are now well established in tourism & consolidated Indian tourism Efficient tele-communication, internet, e-commerce, e-bookings, Mega tourism projects, Acquisitions & mergers, luxury limousines, Volvo coaches, state of art shopping complex, state of art hospitals have come into the tourism scene. The world’s electronic travel information distribution services have all setup shops in India – Sabre, Amadeus, Abacus, & Galileo. They all have arrangements with travel agent, hotels and airlines. State of the art technology has now marked a presence in tour agency operations.
It is now also the time to talk about travel trade partners & the valuable contribution they had since made Indian tourism for last 60 years. The last 70’s and early 80’s saw the rise of travel agencies with proven business success. They developed their own expertise & established contacts with their overseas counterparts. The rise in flow of traffic made greater demand on the services like hotel bookings, transport arrangements; sightseeing etc. With the increase in business they felt the need for collective approach in facing common problems. Infact the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) had been formed much earlier. Their annual convention is an important event when the trade put their demand particularly in respect of taxation, licensing of imports etc. It became major event in the tourism trade and get global attention.
While TAAI enrolled its members from all segments of the trade including airlines, hoteliers, transport operators and other related service, the business of travel agents mainly related to both inbound & outbound travels. Ticketing became the major activity for them. In the initial days, TAAI was the most important body for taking up the trade issues on behalf of the travel trade industry, till Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) came into existence in 1982. IATO members were mainly focusing on inbound tourism. However IATO members retained their membership with TAAI as well as IATO’s. Since its inception IATO had been greatly influencing good number of govt. decisions especially in its formulation of National Tourism Policy as it grew up as the national apex body for travel & tourism industry and it was duly represented in all Govt. of India established of Tourism Committees, be the formulation of National Tourism Policy or National Tourism Development Council or sub committees for recommendation to the govt. for infrastructural facilities. IATO’s steady expansion in membership which grew from some 20/50 in the eighties to over 1200 by the end of the century talk in great volume about the effective role it played to look after the interest of tour operators since its inception in 1982. Its suggestion to tourism decision makers in the Government to open up new areas, visa relaxation, enhanced budget for development of HRD in tourism, incentives to travel sector, its recommendation to the Govt. for inclusion of various remedial measures to boost tourism etc. have been duly considered by the Government. Infact, the Open Sky Policy of the Govt. which is now being followed aggressively, IATO played a pivotal role. As per Department of Tourism record there are now over 146 travel agents, 246 tour operators, 139 transport operators who have all been registered with the Department of Tourism having fulfilled the criteria for each category. IATO has very stringent norms for its active members. They are required to be recognized by the Ministry of Tourism and should be in operation for two years after getting Department of Tourism approval, before applying for active membership. This norm continuous even now as quality control measure. IATO’s Annual Convention has made its mark with simple begiinning in 1983. Since then it had been organized at many places outside Delhi with the objective of opening up new areas. This year being 25years (2007) of is existence it is returning to New Delhi where it originated in 1982. Another important trade body looking after Hotel & Restaurant Industry, FHRAI looks after the interest of hotels and they also did a very good job in getting incentives for the hotels sector. Since last one half decades Indian Hotel Association is also body doing very good job who are looking interest of 5 Star plus hotels.
They too had played a very pioneering role in accommodation through construction of hotel rooms though it called for massive investments. TAFI is another trade body which had played significant role since last two decade mainly looking into ticketing & outbound travels. Association of Domestic Tour Operators since 1986 is aimed to see the development of domestic tourism. They have looked into the potential domestic market and organized themselves very efficiently. The growing middle class in India with disposable money, less working hours & holiday concession given by Government showed a great boost for domestic travel. Infact leave travel concessions patronized by Govt. for its staff added boost for domestic travel. The domestic tour operators have accordingly worked out special packages aimed at domestic market covering whole of India. At least 10% of the population is a definite clientel in this segment of 1 billion population. The domestic market is developing average @ 25% per year. Similarly outbound which was very negligible in the early fifties now approaching 8 million figure. Infact outbound is more in number than international tourist arrivals with in India and growing @ 20% per year. Again better air connectivity & better packages on offer from competitive neghbouring countries are the reason for its success. Outbound tourism is a new development in the tourism scene. Which is a big step toward promoting two way traffic. This a big difference from the early fifties when Indian tourism followed only one way traffic, outbound was restrictive with regulated foreign exchange norms. The retrospective of 60 years of Indian Tourism will not be complete without a reference of Indian Tourism Development Corporation which is the commercial wing of Ministry of Tourism. Since its inception 1966 it came up, it had a mixed fortune especially in 1991 since the opening of economy & disinvestment promoted by Govt. But it had successfully crossed its bad time & in the 60th year of Independence, it has shown record profit. All its hotels are under renovation for welcoming guests for common Wealth Games. Since 1966, the time of its formation under sergent committee recommendation, did a yomen service to Indian tourism with hotels, motels, transport, entertainment, forest lodges and especially at a time when the private sector were very shy for investment beyond metro cities. It opened up various new areas as catalyst which included Sanchi, Khajuraho, Kullu, Mandu, Bhubaneswar, Konark, Madurai with travelers lodges/hotels in the early seventies.
The nineties began with state tourism corporations & tourism business in the interest of promotion of resources for the state. The are doing their continuous efforts even now in a big way. Now most of the states are going a head for overseas investments. Among the states, Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Karanataka have done well in projecting themselves as major tourist destinations in India in the global market with their niche products.
Surface transport scene got a new look with the development of National Highways since last decade. Railways & Cruise segments are now synergized in over all national development plan. These are helping Indian tourism to re-emerge as a destination of choice. Earlier there was total lack of coordination & each segment was looking each interest separately which had a negative impact on tourism. In this field Tourism & Railway Ministries have achieved a lot since last two decade with the launching of Palace of Wheels and other heritage tourist trains. A spin off from the growth of the travel trade & highways was the importance gained by local transport on the ground. More demand started for surface travel mainly toward the golden triangle which was the most preferred mode of travelling than any other alternatives. Transport operators accordingly diversified into tourist coach operations. Luxury body builders came up at many places & offered real luxury coaches for comfortable surface travels. They also organized themselves as Indian Tourist Transport Operators Association (ITTA) and pleaded to Central & State Governments for better amenities on highways & rationalization of road taxes etc and security norms for safety of tourists.
Of course, tourism has now emerged as an organized activity since its small beginning in 1951 & this is mainly built up by the trade which itself came into being on its present scale only after independence & cross country movement spurred by faith & business has been a feature of India’s way of living since time immemorial. Through centuries millions of Indians have been on the trail that led to Himalayas, Varansasi and many lesser known/unknown places within the country. But tourism transformation from the old to the new came with the development by service industry in meeting, the demand of accommodation, communications, transport, food, shopping & their other need. It is their 1960’s & 1970’s experience & efforts to diversify tourism product brought the modern look to tourism which is visible now in the new millennium. Ministry of Tourism has to be congratulated as its bold decision to formulate National Tourism Policy, conducting regular interaction meetings, National committee on tourism, national tourism development council and such platforms for private-public partnerships in tourism business. All have brought a sustainable growth. The key of success public-private partnership and opening of Indian economy in 1991. Govt. also provided fiscal incentives for infrastructure development. With booming tourism, the time is to be more vigilant. The need is to be pro-active & take up innovative projects both by the trade and the Centre & State Governments. India has many unexplored destinations we need to remove the bottleneck areas – infrastructure, visa problem, highways with wayside facilities, camping sites, e-commerce in tourism. We are quite left behind compared to global developments. Our global share of tourism is merely 0.49%. We have to catch up with technological developments in tourism; we have to have trained manpower for servicing tourism plant. It has given enough opportunities but put double the challenges. In the 60 year of independence, let tourism be nation’s vehicle for economic growth with employment, with rise in GDP, steps for alleviation of poverty through tourism projects in remote areas, upliftment of living standards of women etc. Tourism offers the best medium for India’s future and 60 years is the year to achieve all these objective through tourism. My tourism salute to you all on the occasion of 60 year’s India’s Independence. “Jai Hind”
