Are you having trouble as a foreign visitor, negotiating your way around IndiaIJ Just dial 1363, till date the most detailed tourist helpline in 12 languages. Get an e-ticket for the Taj before leaving your home country and spare yourself the long queue. In fact, junk the audio guide. Your mobile can now become a combined Audio Visual guide with venue-specific barcodes encapsulating complete information. And if you still need the human touch, you can dial a "tourist friend."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India is quietly changing the travel experience for both domestic and international travellers. How will you avoid unsavoury experiencesIJ Just sign up for the new tourism website that has authenticated reviews, how-tos, services, prices, comparables and certified experientials to make your discovery of India an indelible, not just an incredible experience.
Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma, who will be launching the website on September 27, is planning a slew of measures to e-enable and e-empower the tourist. Not without reason. While worldwide, the growth of tourism has been 4.6 per cent, in India it has been 17.3 per cent for the corresponding period. "Yes the numbers are up. last year we had shown a growth of 14 per cent. This year, the number has gone up to 17.3 per cent. This is the highest in recent years," Sharma told The Pioneer.
With Prime Minister Modi emphasising tourism as a growth driver and a key component of Brand India, Sharma is backing it up with initiatives. "The 1363 helpline in 12 languages is a unique effort. It is available nowhere in the world. You may find the local language and English but here we have a mix of languages spoken by tourists. So there is an ease of experience. We have made e-ticketing for 116 monuments where you do not need to stand in a queue. Now you can start from your hotel or even your country with the e-ticket for that particular monument. There is a barcode chart accessible on your mobile that has complete information on a site or organisation," he said. The idea is to help the traveller move around on his own without relying on second-hand information.
The tourist police are now going to be complemented with Paryatak Mitra or tourist facilitators. "We are inducting ex-Armymen for the purpose and we hope this will help us ensure a sense of safety," the Minister said.
The new Ministry website, which is proposed to be launched on World Tourism Day, will be a single-window delivery platform that collates every bit of information on India. "As an interactive window, you can reach hotels, get a lowdown on natural sights, be it mountains, deserts, wildlife, snow. Any query related to other websites on tourism will also be linked and answered here. You can say it is a one-stop shop compendium."
However, a major part of the website will be devoted to medical tourism. "Medical tourism has been growing by almost 25 per cent over the last two years.
There is a huge potential but there have been complaints about mishandling of visiting patients, financial irregularities and misdemeanours by touts. We have taken these up very seriously and are now standardising practices through the Medical and Wellness Tourism Board. Visitors can now register on a portal and get complete and transparent information about medical treatment, services and rates provided by our hospitals and wellness institutions. We are providing facilitators for a set fee. The idea is to guarantee value for money, quality and efficiency in services," said Sharma.
As part of ensuring a feel-good experience, the Tourism Ministry is working closely with the Surface Transport Ministry to meet infrastructural issues like connectivity, cleanliness, safety and wayside amenities along highways connecting tourist destinations.
Coming up are two more spiritual circuits, the Tirthankar and Sufi trails. While the first is intended to guide Jain pilgrims, the latter is intended to highlight the inclusive philosophy of India. As the Minister said, "So far the emphasis has been on Amir Khusro and Nizamuddin Auliya. But there are Sufi shrines like Ajmer and many more which are integral to our consciousness. We are tying them up through these circuits to highlight our spiritual traditions."
Insisting that he was not directly selling out ITDC properties but giving them out on a long lease basis to verified hotel industry players, Sharma said the hotels retained by the Government are in for an overhaul. "We propose to revamp Ashoka and Samrat in a big way so that they are at par with other private hotels," he said.
Sharma is also linking culture to a holistic tourist experience rather than just tailgating it. "Culture is intangible. We have proposed that all our cultural activities should be linked to a tourist experiential. We propose that anybody who visits Delhi or any of the nearby places, where our organisations and institutions are situated, drop in at a hub as part of his itinerary. A tourist to Delhi should watch a play at the National School of Drama, attend an artist workshop at the lalit Kala Akademi and so on. In fact, our website is listing all cultural organisations and their schedules. This way we can ensure that they buzz around the year," Sharma said.
Meanwhile, work on the culture mapping of India is on full throttle. "We have 6,20,000 villages with folk artistes and performers. Now to give them a platform we have launched this scheme for Rs 477 crore to be completed in three years. We propose to identify and document all artisans and artistes, their heritage and skill set. We hope to register them. Once registered, we will even hold competitions to encourage talent. Once the document is ready, patrons and event organisers, both at home and abroad, can have access to that database," the Minister said, describing a one of its kind attempt at sustaining living heritage.