‘The Indian Rural Tourism Product Is A Unique Visitor Experience’

Renuka Chowdhury, minister for tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India says tourism is a multiple-interest, all-season catalyst for a country’s development and employment

After the recent turbulences, the Asia-Pacific region with over 130 million arrivals in 2002, overtook the Americas to become the world's second-most visited region after Europe. In this context, South and South East Asia have had an important emerging role. Our tourism assets have many similarities with that of the ASEAN region. The great Mekong artery shares a timelessness aspect with the Ganga and its many tributaries that rise in the Himalaya. Renowned sites such as the Cham monuments in Central Vietnam and the city of Agra with the Taj Mahal also universally treasured - provides high value visitor satisfaction compatible with stakeholder communities livelihood through tourism revenues. Critical impacts such as 9/11, Bali, Mombassa, economic slowdown, the Iraq war and SARS have adversely affected tourism in our region in the recent past. At the same time, it has been demonstrated that domestic and international tourism carry inbuilt resilience which, if sustainably managed, will enable swift recovery.

The tourism sector's capability as a development driver, especially for rural livelihoods, can be viewed in the context of India's current 10th Five Year Plan, the National Tourism Policy 2002 and the global 'Incredible India' campaign. We view tourism as a multiple-interest, all-season catalyst for development and employment as the operational partner in an enabled environment, blending with the overall social and economic objectives.

Initiatives Incorporated

For India, the success of tourism sector lies in its potential to change the lives of the rural poor, its strengths in generating employment, particularly in the rural regions, and its commitment towards harnessing the economic muscle for the betterment of disadvantaged. In our thrust for pro poor, community-based tourism, we have initiated several schemes. We are targeting ten million employment opportunities per year over the Tenth Five-Year Plan period till 2007. We have also earmarked tourism as a priority sector since it can maximise the productivity of India's natural, human, cultural and technical resources. This attribute goes in tandem with tourism's capacity to create large scale employment opportunities, especially in remote and backward areas, with the potential of being sustainable and non-polluting. Further, it is labour intensive and is thus able to provide extensive forward and backward economic linkages to build income and employment especially for women, youth, and the disadvantaged and structured on the country's cultural heritage and indigenous traditions and can utilise local resources and skills.

Futuristic View

By 2007, direct and indirect employment from tourism in India is slated to rise to 66 million from 41 million at present. The tourism multiplier per Indian Rupee one million invested creates 47 jobs or virtually four times the 12 jobs for equivalent investment in other sectors, exemplified in the Indian provinces such as Kerala and Rajasthan through visitor services. This income route holds special possibilities for the most disadvantaged segments of society including unemployed youth, women and the physically challenged while also bridging the shoulder period to the lean season with regular income from a variety of tourism products.

With the global emphasis on sustainability, we see a major marketing opportunity to position the Indian rural tourism product as a unique visitor experience in a low impact setting. The primary target is low volume but high yield visitors, compatible with local community acceptance, carrying capacity of the natural environment and visitor satisfaction.

To achieve the overall vision, among the five strategies in India's National Tourism Policy 2002 is the positioning and maintaining tourism development as a national priority activity. The Policy aims to undertake poverty eradication in an environmentally sustainable manner by enhancing 'employment potential within the tourism sector as well as to foster economic integration through developing linkages with other sectors'. The employment generation potential of tourism in India can be further gauged from the volume of domestic tourism, estimated at 230 million annually, which uses a range of services and accommodation especially that provided by the small sector. However, strategic safeguards are required to harness the sector's economic capabilities without irreversible negative impact on bio-diversity.

Locally active NGOs are being enlisted for mass communication and extension support to host community representatives such as women's self help groups. We now have a first time agreement with UNDP for the 'Endogenous Tourism' software Project with the rural poor as target beneficiaries. The Project will offer tourism products based on rural culture, craft and eco tourism for sustainable livelihoods and integrated rural development, in proximity with existing tourism circuits. Project implementation will encompass enhancing the host community's awareness of the tourism process, gender sensitisation, art and craft skill development, capacity building and training in visitor handling and tourism services marketing to both the domestic and international visitor.

Through endogenous tourism, we aim at both domestic and international visitors not for pleasure alone but also for broadening visitor's experience platform - where the source of attraction lies within the host community or environment. It attempts to transform attitudes and mindsets, imparting local pride and visitor appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage. A few of our sites are examples of these innovative project which complements conventional tourism models will illustrate how we would reach the rural poor as target beneficiaries, through the dynamics of brand leadership. All this links up with our other programmes such as the 'Destination development and Circuit Development Schemes'.