Our country is steadily inching towards grabbing enviable place among the world tourism destinations. Various reasons prompt foreigners as well as locals to visit fabulous and historical places in India. Primarily for her old and fabulous civilization and the heritage symbols left behind or survived through long chequered history, most of the foreign tourists are attracted to tourist destinations in India. However, it is not advisable to attach only economic tag to expanded tourism. Its great usefulness to our country is that hassle-free tourism can become the instrument of introducing Indian civilization and life style to more and more people in the world.
On the occasion of presenting National Tourism Awards, the President has given national tourism a new theme and content. It is a fact that with the growth of Indian economy and increase in the disposable income, the number of tourists is showing rapid increase year after year. Consequently, Tourism Department has to gear up to the needs of burgeoning number of tourists and their requirement. That is the reason why the President has laid stress on integrated tourist circuits as tourism philosophy for the country in years to come. A number of agencies like classified hotels, heritage hotels, approved travel agents, tour operators and tourist transport operators, individuals and other private areas are involved in the industry. Integrating these into tourist circuits would go a long way in boosting tourist industry in the country and also make it efficient. In addition, the Government is keen to launch two initiatives — Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive) – aiming at integrated development of circuits and pilgrim centers.
The President particularly emphasized safe and secure tourism in India. In all probability, this idea has emanated from some unsavoury incidents in which the safety and security of foreign tourists was threatened by malevolent elements. This is a message of caution to the Department of Tourism as well as the police and security functionaries on whom should rests the responsibility of providing security to all tourists. It is a good sign that Tourism Department has initiated a 24×7 Incredible India Helpline to provide tourists valuable information pertaining to their tours. It is a good idea to distribute Welcome Booklet among the incoming tourists that provides them information on Dos and Don’ts. For a foreign tourist India can serve a variety of interests like her splendid middle ages architecture, temple architecture, enervating sea beaches, mesmerizing Himalayan heights and valleys, rich and colourful culture and a huge variety of life style with unique and indigenous contours. However, tourism industry has developed vastly in developed countries and India has still to cover considerable field in achieving high standards of tourism management. This is the reason why the President has said that we need state of art tourist infrastructure. Innovation in tourist industry will go a long way in inducing tourists to visit India more often.
While this is all encouraging, we feel slightly dismayed because no component of Kashmir tourism could win the President’s Award this year. Kashmir is very popular in tourism with many popular destinations of scenic beauty. The State tourism is also engaged in improving its profile in many ways. Why did it not grab a place among the awardees is surprising. Gujarat has been ranked at the top of best tourist States, Madhya Pradesh comes second and Rajasthan the third. Congratulating them for their dedication and service to the nation in promoting and popularizing Indian civilization abroad, the President impressed upon all stakeholders to use their innovative faculty in making Indian tourism attractive. Cleanliness and tidiness are important elements and the tourists are to be encouraged to minimize use of water and energy. It is of vital importance that tourists minimize waste and the states take steps for efficient and clean waste management. The last but not the least is to generate a sort of social familiarity between the visitors and the hosts. In European countries the trend is towards paying-guest tourism. That is a good method of developing social tourism. This is apart from pilgrim tourism which has been lately on high rise in our country. One more area that is closely connected to improvement and streamlining of tourism in India is reducing the time for connectivity and travel. High speed trains connecting tourist destination would be an asset and will go a long way in promoting tourism to its maximum.
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