Seeing new places is an inherent human desire. Tourism is as primitive as the human civilisation. Earlier, it was a subconscious affair, but with the change in time and technology, travel and tourism has become a very much focused sector.
After Independence, the Government was focusing on development of key areas like agriculture, industry, infrastructure, etc. in India. Tourism was never seen as a potential business; it was growing at a snail’s pace. Travel and tourism is essentially a pleasure activity and involves movement of people outside their places of residence to a distant place for a short duration during which the tourists spend among the host community. It becomes the responsibility of the host community to provide avenues for comfort of the tourists.
All the places of the world can never be referred to as tourist destinations; only those which are appealing and catch the fascination of tourists can be truly termed as such destinations. Odisha is such a place truly blessed with a judicious combination of wide array of tourist attractions, for which it has rightfully gained the sobriquet “Miniature India”.
Manoj Mishra, an international travel consultant, writer and a senior faculty of the Utkal University of Culture bristles with refreshingly original ideas on tourism and travel management. He offers many invigorating thoughts, which when practised, can lend a new shape and dimension to scale tourism to its gargantuan heights of glory and exotic beauty. In an interview to The Pioneer, he spoke to Sugyan Choudhury from precincts of the Deuli Mutt at Kakatpur, Puri.
Do the modern electronic gadgets disorient the tourist guidesIJ
The importance of the warm human touch can never be disregarded. Though at certain places pre-recorded cassettes and earphones are being made available to tourists, those gadgets can never be a perfect substitute to tourist guides.
Is the travel agent a dying breed, especially after the widespread use of internetIJ
Certainly not. But travel agents have changed the way they were doing business a decade back. Instead of asking for commissions from the principals like airlines, hotels, etc., they have started asking for consultancy fees just like doctors, lawyers, architects demand. Instead of being generalists, the travel agents are trying hard to establish themselves as specialists. There are numerous specialisations like beehive tour, forts and castles tour, angling tour.
Have terrorism and Maoist activities become a deterrent for growth of tourismIJ
I would like to say tourism has emerged as a perfect panacea of different ailments that the society is suffering from. For example, if the match is between tourism and terrorism, tourism would come out with flying colours. If the bone of contention between Ireland and the UK (Northern Ireland) can never pose a threat to the tourism industry in Great Britain, Scotland and Wales then why any random incident of cross-border terrorism in PoK or J&K would pose a threat to the tourism industry of India which is bigger than 26 European countries taken together.
What is the future of tourism in the days to comeIJ
In many countries, tourism happens to be a major contributor to the GDP and a major revenue earner. In fact, certain countries including quite a few African, Far-Eastern and European countries depend mainly on tourism revenue, be it wildlife tourism in Africa or cultural and other tourism in countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, religious and heritage tourism in Jordan, Egypt, etc. There has been a surge in the activity of tourism boards in many new countries like Abu Dhabi, Croatia, Jordan, Singapore, NZ, etc., which are aggressively trying to promote their tourism centres as 365-day-a-year destinations It is a matter of shame, sorrow and anguish that in spite of being blessed by nature’s gift of flora and fauna, more than 7,000 km of coastline with 480 km of coastline in Odisha, we have paid little attention to its growth and development in sharp contrast to countries like Switzerland which are earning their foreign exchanges mainly through tourism. A country like Spain receives 10 time number of tourists of its population in a year. Without exporting aluminium, iron ore, manganese and such other minerals, tourism is a sector where our country or our State earns foreign exchange without exporting any tangible products in turn. If this sector is properly nourished, our unemployment problem can also be solved to a great measure.
What are the growing prospects of employment for our youths in tourismIJ
Plenty of employment opportunities are being generated both for skilled and unskilled people as tourism is a labour-intensive industry. Every single direct employment opportunity generates indirect employment opportunities for 2.38 people in turn. For example, if one million rupee is being invested in hospitality industry, around 88 employment opportunities are being generated whereas the same investment in agriculture and manufacturing industries create 45 and 12 job opportunities, respectively. Again, the gestation period is minimal in the tourism sector in comparison to other industries. Thus, the scenario leaves tell and tell evidence of discrimination to this sector. Now, the ball is in the courts of both the State and Central Governments to hit the bull’s eye without any further loss of time.
What’s your opinion regarding the present syndrome that the outbound tourism is bigger than the inbound tourismIJ
It is a fact that 7.69 million of Indians are outbound while a shocking figure of 5.75 million of inbound tourists points out the glaring difference. This also reveals that the number of affluent Indians is more and they should be enticed and redirected to all those lesser known beautiful wonderland destinations inside the country so that the our economy would remain vibrant and strong. Counties like Singapore and Maldives are not bigger than our few coastal districts taken together: yet, they are receiving more than 10 million of tourists what India is still craving for. It is high time an all-out effort was undertaken on a war footing for a holistic development of this sector so as to include it as a numero-uno item in the agenda of “Make in India” which is a decisive development programme.
Are we developing our tourist products in keeping with the demand patternIJ
Our tourism industry needs a market-driven approach. The official policies seem to be flying off the nature of tourism demand. For instance, the creation of beach resorts and the execution of special tourism area in Odisha which were in accordance to the market demand have remained stagnated for last about 30 years. Such an approach reveals the lackadaisical attitude of our planners and tourism department mandarins. We boast of thousand temples in Bhubaneswar but show only the Rajarani Temple, which is well-publicised and free from religious obstructions. We boast of a large number of hotel rooms, but very few of them offer the services and facilities that a foreign visitor is normally wants. We cannot invite tourists to come by charter flights because we cannot offer so many rooms of equal standard at a single point of time. We have unearthed lord Buddha’s sacred relics at lalitagiri, but we cannot keep it for public notice as the matter is sub-judice. We kill projects in the name of protecting environment but allow open drains to fall in sea where tourists go for swimming. Odisha is endowed with 480 km of virgin sea beach dotted with international standard beach destinations, but we cannot offer about 20 km for beach resorts which would fetch enormous foreign exchange. Thus, poverty in Odisha amidst Nature’s Plenty is purely a man-made affair.