State of Tourism in India - Inputs on Solutions

YOU HAVE A NEW YEARS GIFT Your friends have sent you a shiny card to wrap up 2017—and start 2018 on the right foot. View their card for you! Open Gift! Las Vegas, NV, 89109, USA © 2017 New Years Cards, All Rights Reserved. Unsubscribe more  

The Ministry should take some pro-active policies like for example encouraging the young and old to travel and learn about our nation and its rich resources/ treasures lying all over the land. But due to pro-active and pro-people policies people fail to utilize the benefit. Budget-hotel and budget-class fare must be made available on different festival occasions / holidays of short duration for groups like in schools, colleges and universities open to the students and their families as well. This will encourage people to take the benefit. The traveling agents /agencies should be encouraged to offer cheaper fare and tariff for special categories of people like students belonging to poorer classes. The culture of tourism must be inculcated like culture of sports. more  

Comprehensive root cause has been identified.Now Govt should find the solution. more  

AJMER IS A FAVOURITE DESTINATION FOR PILGRIM TOURISTS FROM INDIA AND ABROAD. BUT IT IS YET TO HAVE REGULAR AIR SERVICE. NO PREPAID TAXI BOOTH ON RAILWAY STATION AND BUS STAND. TAXI CAR AND AUTO WALA OPENLY LOOT AND MISBEHAVE. NO PARKING SYSTEM. ROADS ARE FULL OF TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT ENCROACHMENTS, LARI GALLA WALLA,THADI WALLS EVEN ON MAIN ROADS. LOT OF HOTELS AND GUEST HOUSES WITHOUT LICENCE. IT IS SAFE HARBOUR FOR CRIMINALS. WE TALK VERY BIG"SMART CITY'. THE LOCAL AND STATE GOVT. WILL DO WELL TO ACT ON GROUND LEVEL SMALL PROBLEMS TO MAKE AJMER A THRILLING EXPERIENCE FOR TOURISTS. IT WILL ATTRACT MORE TOURISTS BY FAVOURABLE WORD OF MOUTH. IT SHOULD BECOME BRAND AMBASSADOR OF SURAJ OF MADAM VASUNDHRA. more  

I have a detailed note on tourism prepared by me sometime ago. WOuld like your views on it. Culture and Heritage – a Perspective (would be good to give definitions of both, so that people reading fully understand the difference – see some ideas attached) Culture Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. For instance, in India as in other countries populated over the years of population movement, the culture is influenced by the many groups of people that now make up the country. Heritage refers to something inherited from the past. The word has several different senses, including: • Natural heritage, an inheritance of fauna and flora, geology, landscape and landforms, and other natural resources • Cultural heritage, the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society: man-made heritage o Food heritage o Industrial heritage, monuments from industrial culture • Virtual Heritage, an ICT work dealing with cultural heritage • Inheritance of physical goods after the death of an individual; of the physical or non-physical things inherited • Heredity, biological inheritance of physical characteristics • Birthright, something inherited due to the place, time, or circumstances of someone's birth • Kinship, the relationship between entities that share a genealogical origin Need to have: Mission Statement: for clients, customers, general public (donors?) to know and understand Vision Statement: for you and others within the scheme to know and understand, such aims and what you want to achieve Objective: 1. To preserve our culture and heritage 2. To promote our culture and heritage within the country and beyond our shores 3. To propose a win-win situation for everyone - Inclusive growth- local involvement – local economic development meaning: LED reflects and respects the fact that a district’s economy is more than a collection of individual firms and markets, it needs to comprise networks and dynamic systems of interactions with a much wider range of stakeholders. To help shape the socio-economic fabric of the district, by listening to the concerns and expectations of the communities and businesses within those communities. Therefore, LED is a change process achieved by networking between different stakeholders. The steering of the change process is as important as the interventions which come from the process. The characteristics of a good steering structure are ownership, transparency, flexibility and conflict sensitivity. - Wide spectrum of culture and heritage – define culture and heritage so that there is a clear distinction, although there are overlaps - All through the year- no seasonality - No threat of competition from other countries – there maybe conflicts between different cultures? - Improve infrastructure in the long run – how would this be achieved, needs an explanation - To earn foreign exchange through tourism Proposal: 1. Identify - All the themes that defines culture and heritage- a stupendous task – start with definition of culture and heritage - Document each of them with authenticity- create a database - All across regions and across religion ( prioritise initially) – would suggest that you identify a theme, and concentrate on that… - Agencies that are to be involved and those that are to be prohibited – really need a stakeholder analysis so as not to alienate anyone - Funding methodology- domestic and international – needs a strategy with a compelling proposal for investors/donors - Management structure? – definitely need a lean management structure, which can grow into the assignment - Government involvement? – see notes on stakeholder analysis, try to avoid their heavy involvement - Infrastructure? Office, personnel, regional offices, co-ordination - Marketing? – essential component, and who you market to is going to need to be defined - Research? – need some historians, who can research the cultures, and identify the heritage elements - Institutional and technological support?- website, IT portals to register , execute, control – need to review IT available, maybe establish “apps” for downloading, for cultures and heritage 2. Plan of action - Initiate with one or two themes - either geographically, cultural or heritage – agreed, this would be a good approach - Arrange tourism accordingly- identify interested parties – stakeholder analysis - Implement keeping the objectives in view – see comments on mission and vision - Keep the blueprint for the entire scheme ready – there needs to be a plan of action, see attached graphic - - Identify work already done or being done in different themes - Co-ordinate with these agencies- domestic as well as overseas 3. Scope and definition: This will require a lot of research. Suggest we first look into what are the most popular areas that tourists want to learn more about, and then do in-depth research - Indian Handicrafts- each region, state has a large variety to offer - Indian Textiles- weaving, embroidery, printing, manufacturing - Indian jewellery- showcase processes too - Indian Festivals- cultural, regional - Indian Cuisines- regional specialities - Indian music- classical, folk music and dance, performing arts - Indian art- paintings, sculptures, - Indian rituals – - Indian scriptures- books, shlokas - Indian philosophy, astrology, nadishashtra, astronomy, mathematics - Yoga, Ayurveda, Herbal medicines, treatments - Heritage sites- temples, forts, mosques, gurudwaras, churches, palaces Indian movie industry? Bollywood? Many existing agencies/NGOs/individuals doing fragmented work in the above areas 4. Implementation plan: - Make a calendar of events happening globally, for the year - Take each Indian theme to coincide with similar International event/s - Expertise in each field to be drawn from various sources - Draw tourists from relevant country/ies ; trade-off in hospitality, reciprocity etc. - Draw students, local graduates, in implementation; make it a source of employment - Budgets for each theme to be set up; close monitoring; deliverables to be decided upfront - Risk and Reward system to be designed; maybe different for each theme - Approvals from regulatory bodies, government agencies, others - Marketing strategies - Quality control- Consistency in quality of implementation, quality of content, credibility of information, credibility of management and execution team, quality of products and services 5. Organisation Structure: - keep simple 6. Ownership : holding company with subsidiaries for each or a combination of themes 7. Control: geographical and functional 8. Capital and funding Deliverables: 1. Bibliography of all the themes 2. Database of all users 3. Independent, viable and sustainable organisation structures 4. Equitable distribution of wealth in the rural areas, towns and tier II cities – involvement of local communities is vital 5. National and global awareness of Indian culture and heritage 6. Improve infrastructure in the interiors- not just roads and bridges but all other facilities – this would be a different type of project, unless you used old ways of achieving things – labour based techniques 7. Add valuable foreign exchange to country’s reserves more