Document
The future of tourism in India
AS part of its series of regional consultations, the Seminar Education Foundation organised a three day retreat at Sardar Samand, Jodhpur from 17-20 February 2005. The major recommendations emerging from the consultation are listed below.
Recommendations
* Tourism and travel is the most appropriate bridge that connects cultures and people.
* It must be seen as a means to understand and absorb the complexities of pluralism.
* It must be seen as a means to break down artificial barriers between countries as well as within the country.
* It endorses identity and generates pride.
* It encompasses, respects and puts to positive use all spheres of social and economic activity.
* It is the bridge that links inextricably all professions that fall within the broadest definition of the service sector.
* It conserves, preserves and builds.
* It salutes entrepreneurial skills.
* It creates wealth.
* It compels integration.
1. To give the Ministry of Tourism economic status. Tourism must be seen as an investment not an expenditure. As one of the biggest employment generators, tourism engages with the development process.
2. To move tourism on to the concurrent list and create the parameters for centre-state working norms within a national tourism management policy.
3. To amalgamate the ministries of culture and tourism under one umbrella.
4. To free the sector from the purview of ‘luxury tax’.
5. To create a high powered decision-making group of ministers – home, civil aviation, shipping, railways, roads and urban development – to deliberate on infrastructure needs. An empowered group under the chairmanship of the prime minister. Also a cabinet committee on tourism.
6. To redefine the role of the ministry from being a regulator to a facilitator by creating an autonomous board comprising of private practitioners and new generation entrepreneurs along with ex-officio members from government to establish new norms for the new world. 7. Plan funding needs restructuring; the focus to incorporate the ‘travel and tourism’ needs in infrastructure development.
8. Link national highways scheme to world heritage sites and state heritage sites.
9. Increase airline capacity.
10. Reopen existing small airstrips across the country; allow and encourage private participation in the redevelopment of such airstrips.
11. Open at least one international airport in every state.
12. Ease up the visa regime.
13. Encourage B&B (bed and breakfast) licenses in all towns and set the basic parameters within which they operate (the Ireland model).
14. Review the inner-line permit restrictions and evolve a special model for those regions (Bhutan model).
15. Restore all dak bungalows as ‘heritage rest houses’ and allow their private management by leading practitioners of international repute to make them ‘special’.
16. Make available interest free loans to those wanting to upgrade private properties for commercial use as small hotels of up to 20 rooms for travellers.
17. Establish the norms for public/private participation for the maintenance of monuments and historic sites by offering a tax break.
18. Restructure all entry procedures and introduce fast track for Indians returning home as is done in many countries.
19. Ensure time-bound airport management and upgradation.
20. Introduce a national eco-tourism and wildlife park management plan (tourists are conservation patrols – Africa experience).
21. Restructure the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and create a heritage tourism management plan.
22. Structure a uniform national fiscal policy for taxes related to tourism activities.
23. Remove entertainment tax to encourage theatre and music shows in all cities and towns – an endorsement of the rich traditions of this subcontinent.
24. Enable free transit across SAARC borders for its citizens.
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Seminar Education Foundation retreat was supported by the Ford Foundation, Sardar Samand, Jodhpur, 17-20 February 2005.
Conference participants: Amita Baig, heritage management consultant, Delhi; Graham Brooks, Chairman, ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee, Sydney; Romesh Chopra, advertising/marketing expert, Delhi; Renuka Chowdhury, Union Minister of Tourism; Jose Dominic, MD and CEO, CGH Earth, Cochin; Vikram Sardesai, designer, Bangalore; Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus Red Cell, (marketing expert), Delhi; Harsh Sethi, Consulting Editor, ‘Seminar’, Delhi; Rajiv Sethi, Asian Heritage Foundation, Delhi; Gaj Singh, Chairman, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur; Malvika Singh, former Vice Chairperson, INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), and Publisher, Delhi; N.K. Singh, former Member, The Planning Commission, Delhi; Tejbir Singh, Editor, ‘Seminar’, Delhi; Prem Subramaniam, Head – Tourism Infrastructure, IDFC, Delhi; Rajeev Talwar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, GOI.
