The Government aims to double the domestic tourist footfall in the next five years, Prahlad Patel, Minister of State (independent charge) for Culture and Tourism, said on Thursday but not before pointing out that all the stakeholders including the Centre and State Governments, hotels, media, tour operators and locals are equally responsible for the growth of tourism in the country.
“We all as stakeholders are responsible for the growth of the tourism sector and responsibility cannot be laid on one individual. All the sectors should come together for its growth,” he said speaking at the Exotica Tourism Summit organized by The Pioneer here on Thursday.
India’s domestic tourist footfall in 2018 was 1.85 billion.
Patel was of the view that tourism was never discussed minutely. Had it been, we would have witnessed tremendous progress in the North-east region where connectivity was never taken seriously. It was only during former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime that some efforts were made but they were never taken up in a sustained manner after that, he said.
“More than monetary benefits, it is the correct and positive perception towards the tourism that matters. With our holistic approach, we aim to double our domestic tourist footfalls within the next five years,” he maintained.
Acknowledging that there was a lot yet to be done to put India on the global map, he said the stakeholders can take advantage of the tourism vacuum that has been created due to China getting affected by the deadly coronavirus. We can become an alternate to China as a tourist destination, he said.
Patel, who was the chief guest at the event, also spoke about relaxing norms in e-visa such as extending the facility from one year to five years, cutting down on e-visa fee and reducing GST for hotel rooms.
This apart, he said his ministry is also working extensively with the Ministry of External Affairs to shorten the e-visa format and drastically reduce the visa fees further which has been a concern for many foreign tourists.
The Pioneer Editor Dr Chandan Mitra, who made the welcome remarks, said India has an immense tourism potential and the inaugural Summit dedicated to the sector is a step towards harnessing it. He said the problems faced by foreign tourists should be removed.
Mitra later moderated a panel discussion with Ashwani Lohani, ex-CMD, Air India, Pronab Sarkar, Indian Association of Tour Operators ( IATO) President, Ritu Beri, Fashion Designer and Anil Chadha, COO ITC Hotels.
Lohani, who has headed various senior posts in the tourism departments like ITDC at the Centre and Madhya Pradesh, pitched for domestic tourism saying that there was a need to catalyse people within the State and inter-States as well. He suggested putting up signages all over in a large scale, improving connectivity through roads and trains besides slashing the travel cost as measures to boost tourism.
Sarkar felt that tourism in the country can flourish only with the joint cooperation of States and the Centre. “But unfortunately, we don’t even contribute 1 per cent share in the global tourism while small neighbouring countries are doing much better. We want to reach the magical figure of 20 million international tourists’ arrivals by 2020. For this, there is an urgent need to improve infrastructure, cut down GST rates further as tourism is not luxury but an economic activity that can create lots of jobs around a monument and a tourist spot,” he said.
For her part, Beri recalled how she showcased India’s culture through her work abroad. “We should be proud of our rich culture and we as Indians should first accept that we are above the rest of the world.”
Chadha outlined how the visiting US President Donald Trump and his family loved the Indian cuisine that ITC Maurya served to them during their stay there to stress the fact that India has many strengths up its sleeves that could strengthen its tourism sector in multifarious ways.
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As a measure to woo foreigners and for their convenience, the monuments or tourists hotspots witnessing more than one lakh footfall, will have signage in the mother tongue of that country. For instance, in Sanchi Stupa, which is visited by more than a lakh Chinese have signboards in their mother tongue. “Also, we plan to make it possible for tourists to scan a QR code at a location to listen to information about that place in their own language, said Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel.