A tough climb to the summit

By Ajeet Bajaj
President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India

The year 2007 has been a fantastic year for the adventure tour fraternity. During the year, the association worked very closely and effectively with the ministry of tourism, Government of India, a number of state tourism departments and various other organisations and associations across the country. The association has also been instrumental in opening 113 mountain peaks supported by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. During the year, the association was also actively involved with a number of training and marketing initiatives, including road shows.

However, the future of the industry will remain uncertain without addressing a few important issues. To begin with, the first issue that the association would like to address is attaining permission to use satellite phones for tours that operate in the wilderness areas where communication/medical facilities are not available. Therefore, allowing the use of satellite phones will go a long way in ensuring that safety standards in India are at par with international standards. This would definitely make adventure seekers more confident of their safety during expeditions.

Secondly, without the right equipment it is difficult to engage in adventure activities. Sadly, adventure equipment of international quality are not available in India. Hence, most of the equipment is being imported into the country with huge duties levied on it. Duty-free import of adventure equipment and facilitating the import process for these equipment would go a long way in giving the necessary fillip to this growing sector.

A waiver of service tax and fringe benefit tax charged on adventure tours is also being demanded since such tours happen only a few months in a year. This will not be a major setback to the national exchequer and will give the necessary boost to this sector.

Looking at the biodiversity found in our wildlife parks, the association has recommended that the ministry of tourism is represented at the 25 national wildlife parks, that in turn can work in tandem with the state ministry of forest. Efforts also need to be made to make the wildlife experience more ecologically friendly and educative. The association also recommends sensitising visitors towards our natural heritage using tools like documentary films at park entrances on the dos and don'ts in wildlife parks, etc. Getting in experts from overseas countries already operating parks of similar kind like South Africa would help us devise a strategy for better management of the parks focusing on conservation, carrying capacity, sustainability and inclusion of local communities in the preservation and conservation process.

Facing an acute shortage of skilled manpower, the association recommends the ministry-run institutes or those sponsored by it to offer adventure and eco-tourism as subjects. The government-run mountaineering institutes like the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (Uttarkashi) and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling can offer adventure guide courses ensuring creation of a pool of trained adventure/eco-tourism personnel taking future forward professionally.

According to recent calculations, adventure tourism in India is expected to grow substantially with an increased awareness of India as an adventure destination, not only in the domestic market but also in the international market. This helps us to believe that India can reach the peak of the adventure tourism in the world.