Aiming to position India as a “Must See” and “Must Revisit” destination for global travellers and to boost local tourism, the Union Tourism Ministry has prepared a draft National Tourism Policy 2015 with a focus on employment generation and community participation in the tourism sector.
The draft policy, which also proposes setting up of a National Tourism Authority (NTA), is available on the Tourism Ministry’s website for comments and suggestions. Tourism has been one of the key focus areas of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The NTA will have representation from the trade and industry and interconnected departments/agencies to execute the policy that aims to “substantially increase” India’s share in global tourism from its current figure of 0.64 per cent, as per the draft.
The policy includes aspects of swachhta (cleanliness), suraksha (safety) and swagat (welcome) with focus on development of core infrastructure (airways, railways, roadways, waterways, etc.) as well as Tourism Infrastructure (Swadesh Darshan, PRASAD, Buddhist Circuit, etc)
The emphasis will be on skill development across all segments — setting up of a dedicated university for tourism and hospitality education as well as on technology enabled development in tourism — social media, mobile applications, Wi-Fi connectivity at tourist centres, GIS technologies etc, as per the draft policy.
The draft aims to play a more pro-active and decisive role at multilateral tourism fora under SAARC, ASEAN, IBSA, BRICS and others, besides promoting common packages with various nations on themes that link the countries such as the Buddhist circuit, Ramayana circuit, Himalayan circuit, Heritage circuit etc. The aim is to fully exploit the tourism potential of the country.
The policy also aims to frame a policy for Vintage and Classic cars and to tap heritage tourism a National Heritage Tourism Board is proposed to be set up.
A dedicated specialised task force dedicated to tourists to address perceptions around security, in co-ordination with local police forces has been proposed. A number of States such as Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have already deployed Tourist Police.
The policy also promises to promote and focus on niche markets such as medical tourism, golf, beaches, cruise, wedding destinations, yoga and spirituality which have huge potential to attract the global as well as local tourists in the country.