COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

The Rediff Business Special/Tourism in doldrums

Disorder Inc

Name it, India has got it, except tourists

As with any marketable product, brand positioning is crucial when it comes to selling India as a tourist destination. Most tourism promotion offices can only offer shoddily produced brochures with inadequate information. There is no publicity and no marketing worth the name. And what is worse, everything is done haphazardly.

Take the much-hyped Visit India Year 1999-2000 (now renamed Explore India Year to include domestic tourists) which begins in April. Instead of formulating a well-planned strategy (which should have been co-ordinated with the external affairs ministry and the private-sector tourism industry), the tourism ministry has reverted to being merely an adjunct of the civil aviation ministry.

"Last year, Nepal had held a similar festival, but they had the thing well chalked out. The King of Nepal walked through the main streets of Kathmandu -- a symbolic gesture that he was a part of the festivities. Here, we have yet to come out with a logo for the festival. What are the special incentives being offered to tourists? Like Thailand, we should have a visa-on-arrival facility. Major hoteliers and tour operators have to be involved. More three- and four-star accommodation must come up. But no one has worked on this," says Indian Association of Tour Operators' founder-president Ram Kohli.

Tour operators and travel agents, however, do not think the social and political upheavals are permanent impediments to the growth of the tourism sector. Tourists are flocking to Malaysia in spite of disturbances there. The need of the hour is to circulate information campaigns to dispel myths and unfounded fears.

Says Rabindra Seth, tourism expert and adviser to the WelcomGroup chain: "The travel and tourism industry has no public relations mechanism to fight attacks on it. For example, during the Surat plague, no one bothered to set at rest the fears of foreign tourists that Surat was 13,000km away from Delhi and represented no health hazard to a person wishing to travel to Kerala. Similarly, the world media told people coming to India that Christians were targets of systematic attack. But the government did nothing to correct this impression."

But no amount of marketing and publicity can help if the economics of tourism is in disorder.

Once the tourist has landed in India, internal travel is expensive and riddled with logistical problems. Says Sanjeet, "An air ticket from Delhi to Trivandrum costs about Rs 20,000. For the same amount you can travel to London. So, naturally, London wins. Further, a three-star deluxe hotel room in, say, Manali, costs US $80 a day. You get similar accommodation in Kathmandu and other Asian countries at the same, and sometimes lower, cost."

In India there is little option for the middle-budget traveller who often travels with family. There is hardly any three- and four-star hotel to lure those other than the big spenders like the Americans and the Europeans -- who have stopped coming to India anyway. Also, given the worldwide recession, the traveller has become much more price-conscious.

But there are problems here too. Says A K Dave, chairman, Quality Inns, "With high land costs and little capital, high interest rates, short repayment periods, in the long run it works out to be more viable to build a five-star hotel. Therefore, there is no such thing as 'reasonable accommodation' any more."

The hospitality industry needs to be streamlined. "Luxury taxes imposed on hotels in Delhi and Bombay are the highest in the world. A combined tax might be a better idea so that the tourist doesn't end up paying taxes three and four times over," says Inder Sharma, chairman, Sita World Travels.

Internal travel is a nightmare. If it isn't the air traffic controllers, it is the non-availability of flights, long queues for railway and bus tickets, and touts who will take you for a ride in collusion with the police. Hundreds of tourists -- especially from Japan and Korea -- have found themselves stranded and have had to shell out thousands of rupees for taxi rides and accommodation that should not have cost more than a few hundreds.

Tourism is one industry where, more than any other, there has been clear evidence of too much government interference but not enough government co-operation. There seems to be just no political will and imagination to bring people to India.

But then, this is nothing new. India exported mysticism and spiritualism to the West in the 1960s when there was a surge of interest in this huge country. If we didn't take advantage of it then, say the cynics in the tourism sector, what makes you think anyone is interested now?

The industry is crying out for political professionalism. But no one is listening.

In the First Five-Year Plan, there was no mention of the tourism sector. However, it did find its way into the Second Plan as priority number 268, just a step above item 269 which had to do with the maintenance of lighthouses.

Today, not only is the potential of the tourism industry recognised and given priority, the government claims it is going all out to seduce both international and domestic travellers. Although shortcomings remain -- lack of political will, rivalry between intra- and inter-tour operators -- there are some who have tried and succeeded in swimming against the tide of inertia.

Jammu and Kashmir is a striking example. J&K is a tourism-led economy. With militancy, its finances were in a shambles. But it has risen from the ashes and in 1998, 100,000 tourists visited the state. This is the result of a consistent tourism policy to call back those who had abandoned it as a tourist spot.

Houseboat owners were granted loans and their losses were written off; travel agents and tour operators all over the country were contacted and invited to visit the state to 'see' for themselves that 'things were fine'. Today things are picking up.

Other states are waking up to the potential of this sector, which includes states that never figured on the tourism map. Recently, the 'seven sisters' of the North-East got together to discuss steps to promote tourism.

The government is trying to play along. In a notification on November 26, 1998, it granted star trading house status to travel agents, tour operators and hotels earning more than Rs60 million per annum in foreign exchange for the country. Service tax has been waived and other concessions have been granted.

Ashok Pradhan, director general of tourism, points out that the south-east Asian crisis and global recession have hit the Indian tourism industry hard. "Yet, we have fared better than other sectors, given the fact that unlike other industries, tourism does not stand on its own. It is dependent on many factors."

He promises betters days ahead. In the coming year, to be known as Explore India Year, hotel tariffs and air fares will be frozen, new markets will be offered and administration streamlined.

If Kashmir can do it, why not the others?

Courtesy: Sunday magazine

Specials

Business news