Indian Tourism Industry on a downward trend?

The tourism statistics in the first quarter and up to MAY’09 as compiled by the Department of Tourism shows a sharp decline in the industry by a whopping 40-45%.

This depressing situation can either be defended by obvious reasons which every sector seems to be falling trap to. i.e. Recession or specifically for this sector even Terrorism can justify the letdown.

These factors did play their parts but are these the only reasons are the question?

Recently, I happened to run into few students of my age (or may be younger) from London while returning back from Mumbai, obviously taken back by the fact that most of them have already explored many parts of the world on their own..(Intention here is not to highlight my grief and envy for these not so qualified tyros, who happened to look more contended to me, thanks to Indian technocrats burning midnight oil to work for them) but to highlight RECESSION couldn’t be a major reason to hamper tourism in India, cost affordability is high for them.

So, these students looked perplexed regarding their itinerary, as they had nothing to keep this confusion at bay. Call it their ignorance or impetuosity they were holding onto a book, INDIAN TRAVEL DESTINATION (travel guide) to guide them (Was really surprised by their inquisitiveness)

At the same time I was feeling sorry for the sad state of administration and management here to capitalize on such customers they could cater and give life to their tumbling balance sheets.

Moreover, the escalating cases of robbery, molestation against these visitors have added fuel to the problem. Ugly incidents of rape, sledging, bluffing gives hard time to these holidaying tourists to trust in our law and order system. Tourism police seems to be mourning with our belligerent politicians on the recent issue of the latter’s security. After all they are big assets we can’t afford to loose.

According to Tourism Statistics India, tally of domestic tourists is almost four hundred times more than the international tourist, which clearly shows that the scope of growth for tourism industry is wide if exploited optimally and efficiently.

Anyways coming back to those students, Out of many doubts befuddling my mind about what could/should be done to tackle this problem, one thing that propped out in my mind instantaneously was, why do we have only four to five tourism trains in India? Let me take you through some of the statistics on one of the most celebrated tourism train called Palace on Wheels.

Palace on Wheels

India’s first luxury train started in 1982 on 26th of January.

Concept derived from the royal background of the coaches, originally meant to be the personal railway coaches of the erstwhile rulers of the princely states of

• Rajputana
• Gujarat
• the Nizam of Hyderabad
• And the Viceroy of British India.

Route followed

• Eight day journey
• Departs from New Delhi
• travels around Rajasthan with stops in Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Sawai Madhopur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Bharatpur, and Agra.

Facilities and capacity

• 52 rooms, allocated to single, double and Triple occupancies
• 104 passengers in fully booked tour.

PALACE ON WHEELS TARIFF (PER PERSON, PER NIGHT)

Occupancy Type	(Lean Season) August’09	September ’09 to April ’10
Single Occupancy	US $ 500.00	Us $ 670.00
Double Occupancy	US $ 375.00	Us $ 500.00
Triple Occupancy	US $ 340.00	Us $ 450.00

This excludes tariffs and taxes.

So, the average cost comes out to be around Rs.3500-4000 for eight days of bliss and royal treatment. This not only serves the purpose of luring the customers but satiates the inquisitiveness of visitors for our rich culture and heritage and saves them from all the confusions and doubts, which sometime curtails them to take a plunge.

Can’t we come up with more of these ventures to tap the market instead of brooding over ill fate and covering our limitations with macro issues?

These grass root reforms require commitment not just from people in the authority but also from people like us, to come out with interesting strategies and plans to make it happen. If those students can dare to enjoy on their convictions why cant we!

(This guest post has been submitted by our regular reader Kirti Agarwal)