ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat provides a profound analysis of India’s touristy scene
India, a land of diversities, has a varied tourism resource base to offer its visitors. Tourism is a sector that possesses the potential to grow at a high rate and ensure consequential development of infrastructure at the destinations. It has the capacity to capitalise on the country’s success in the services sector and provide a sustainable model of growth. It is a multisectoral activity characterised by diverse service providers. While some spots have emerged as prime ones, drawing numerous visitors from around the globe, it goes without saying that the country is yet to realise the true potential it has to offer the world. There are umpteen resources that remain unexplored. A look at the figures vis-à-vis domestic and foreign travellers’ data reveals that in terms of numbers domestic ones outclass international ones. The number of domestic tourists increased from 66.7 million in 1991 to 1,432.0 mln in 2015 whereas the number of foreign tourists swelled from 3.1 mln to 23.3 mln during the same time-frame.
In terms of contribution to total travel activity we observe that over the years the share of domestic tourists has been increasing continuously and it is up from 95.5 % in 1991 to 98.4 % in 2015 whereas the share of foreign visits declined from 4.5 % in 1991 to 1.6 % in 2015. Establishing this, one wonders why domestic tourism doesn’t get supplementary priority and a more integral, central role in tourism development. Given the growth of the economy, the expansion of the middle classes and the ongoing westernisation of their lifestyles, over the coming decades the relative importance of domestic tourism can only be expected to increase exponentially. Therefore the question to be posed is whether too much emphasis is being laid on foreign travellers and in the process ignoring the immense prospects on offer in our own backyard. Domestic tourism provides much-needed employment to thousands of small-scale entrepreneurs and low-scale workers, something that the country requires to utilise its growing demographic dividend.