Tourism needs a reality check. My article in Times of India 9 June 2013
Tourism – when less is more
Click on this to read the newspaper article: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117435543637317707346/posts/3FUjUeGHdc5
Or read this word document:
No business like tourism business
No business like tourism business
Tourism
worldwide is massive $ 4.5 Trillion industry (remember 1 trillion is a 1,000
billion) and results in around 250 million jobs. To give you a sense of scale,
the software industry is only is $ 500 billion worth and creates 20 million
jobs. Several countries have learnt how
to handle tourism successfully showing off their attractions while safeguarding
their most sensitive sites from over exploitation. As a consequence tourism has
become a major sustainable contributor to their economies.
India is finally waking up
By
comparison the Indian tourism industry which is said to be around $ 9 Billion is
a measly 0.02% by value and around 0.5% by international arrivals. No wonder
that there is so much ignorance of the subject in our country. The Ministry of
Tourism is aware of our country’s shortcomings in this industry. They realize
that infrastructure, human resources and marketing are the top three priorities
and plan to invest in these areas to improve the tourism business. Central grants have been allocated for several
states and our very own Vizag district will also get its share of the funding.
Vizag’s ambitions
This brings
me to Vizag and its tourism ambitions. At meetings and workshops on tourism, ideas
fly fast and furious about how to bring more-more-more tourists to (a) our
beaches (b) to Buddhist sites and (c) to the Araku area - all already badly
ravaged environmentally sensitive areas. And this is why I shudder when I hear some
of the naive copy-paste suggestions at such meetings. For example “sun-bathing
decks” for swimmers on RK beach. I had a flash vision of charred brown bodies in
swim suits on our own Bay Watch & Bondi Beach and thousands of young men ogling
with their tongues hanging out. Let me explain further.
Understand our domestic tourists
Those who
have traveled to the more advanced tourist-friendly countries will know that
we can never ever aspire to attract significant numbers of foreign tourists.
That is because our population overloaded country is decades away from offering
the type of infrastructure, facilities and social culture that those tourists are
accustomed to. Now, one should not feel hurt when accepting this carved-in-stone
fact.
The truth is
that we are completely dependent on domestic tourists. Once we accept that fact
we must understand who our customer is. I have not done a formal research on
this but am quite sure that when it is done the Vizag domestic tourist can be
segmented something like this:
·
At the top of the triangle are the business
visitors who stay in 3 to 5 star hotels and keep aside a day or two for
sightseeing after they have finished work. They generally travel in style and
spend plenty of money.
·
The second segment is generally young male and
female executives traveling in groups on a short company sponsored holiday or a
seminar. They live in 3 star hotels and spend quite a bit of money.
·
The third segment is the budget family tourists
who come in the cooler months mostly from Bengal and stay in economy
guesthouses and lodges. They travel in
group sizes of 6 to 10 and are very budget conscious.
·
The fourth segment is the “plastic bag tourists”
who carry much of their belongings in plastic bags. They travel 50 to a bus, visit temples, refresh
themselves at choultry type of arrangements, stations and bus stands. Most of
these tourists can be recognized by their shaved heads.
·
And finally we have the largest group who can be
called “local tourists”. They are from Vizag and surrounding areas. They are
young, travel in small groups, stay with relatives and are often mistaken for outstation
tourists.
I can guarantee
you that the bottom two segments are the largest in numbers and spend the least
per capita.
More mess - less revenue
The most common
characteristic of our domestic tourists, especially the lowest two segments, is
that they have the propensity to mess up the areas they visit. They are the ones that will not notice a
garbage bin even if it hits them on their shaven heads.
At Buddhist
sites they climb on the stupas, carve their names on the ancient bricks, eat their
pulihara and ease themselves anywhere. Then they wonder what the fuss is about
a pile of old bricks!
At Bora they
deface the caves and litter their environment. We have seen how in a matter of
10 years our million year old beautiful Bora Caves has been vandalized beyond
repair under the stewardship of the APTDC, who allowed lakhs of unsupervised paying
visitors in, while turning a blind eye to the carnage inside the caves.
Monkeys in a glass shop
I ask you, would
you allow a troop of monkeys (an illustration not meant to be derogatory) to
play with your glassware? The sensitive sites that we want to convert to “tourist
attractions” are like fragile glass displays. They will be destroyed unless
they are handled with care.
Lower footfall – higher revenue model
If we are
running an amusement park - the more the visitors you get the better. However
when you show off an environmentally sensitive or heritage endangered site the policy
mantra should definitely be “less visitors - more revenue”. For
example, instead of 100 visitors spending Rs. 5 each yielding Rs. 500 and
causing much damage, would it not be better to have only 10 visitors who spend
Rs. 100 each, yielding Rs. 1,000 and not impacting the site adversely? Would not this safeguard the sites better? Let’s
think about that.
Comments
Great thoughts you got there, believe I may possibly try just some of it throughout my daily life.
Andaman Tourism
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