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 One
of the fastest growing industries in the world today is tourism.
Despite minor setbacks to the flow of international tourist
arrivals, receipts from tourism have been in excess of US$
475 billion. In other words, US$ 1.5 billion plus are spent
by international tourists every single day. The year 2001
registered 693 million international tourist arrivals.
Tourism has been declared as the major force for socio-economic
development and has a very positive impact in foreign exchange
earnings and employment generation, particularly in developing
countries of the world.
The SAARC region consisting of the seven countries has not
succeeded to the extent that it should to expand their tourism
base. With only 4.7 million international visitors, the current
share of tourists visiting the SAARC region is less than one
per cent of world arrivals. However, the region is slightly
better off when we compare its share of tourism receipts US$
4.2 billion as against the world international tourism receipts
of US$ 475 billion.
- Firstly,
the economic slow down coupled with political uncertainty
in the region has had a further negative impact on the tourism
industry in this part of the world.
- Secondly,
the fear psychosis and resultant concern for safety has
been a major barrier to the promotion of long haul tourism.
- Finally,
other barriers coming in the way of growth of this industry
such as:
-
Poor level of of infrastructure
-
Poor security and hygiene
-
Inadequate air/rail/road connectivity
-
Cumbersome visa procedures
-
Exorbitant hotel rates
 What
needs to be done is to embark on joint marketing strategies
in a very aggressive manner in tourism generating countries.
As far as international tourist traffic to our region is concerned,
we have a choice to follow one of the three routes viz stand-alone
marketing; gateway approach and joint marketing. The first
route will require a relatively higher level of investment.
The second will result in congestion being created at identified
hubs. It is therefore the third alternative, which countries
of our region must consciously adopt and take immediate action
to jointly market what one would call ‘ancient land with
a modern face’, together we can achieve more. Besides,
joint marketing of neighbouring destinations will considerably
reduce costs and would possibly lead to issue of SAARC visa
- resulting in eliminating one of the major barriers to tourism,
namely, cumbersome visa procedures.
At a time when long haul traffic is severely affected on account
of several factors beyond our control, the seven-countries
of the region stand to gain by joint marketing. So, they should
look at developing intra-region tourism, since we have common
characteristics such as:
-
Culture
-
Climate
-
Food
-
Language
We should exploit these characteristics to our fullest advantage.
Currently, 25 per cent of tourist arrivals in our region,
equivalent to one million plus tourists, are generated within
the region. Short haul destinations are very much in demand
and we should aim at doubling this traffic in the next two
years.
(The author is chairman elect, Indian Ocean
Tourism Organisation Inc (IOTO) and member - Executive Committee,
SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
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