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Mumbai: While the annual outbound tourism in India has increased to 3 crore, the average spend for domestic tourism in the country is constantly going up after Covid-19, said Sagnik Chaudhary, deputy director general and regional director of west & central India at Ministry of Tourism.
In an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal at the FPJ Dialogue on Wednesday, Chaudhary highlighted that India’s domestic tourism is growing at an exponential rate with rise in spiritual tourism and business tourism. The senior tourism official added that along with the growth in domestic tourism, the average expenditure by domestic tourists is also constantly increasing.
Chaudhary said, “Domestic tourism is thriving due to spiritual tourism. Wherever we have spiritual destinations, domestic tourism is increasing. Maharashtra is a very good example of spiritual tourism. After Covid, people want to check down the wish list of all their aspired travel destinations as soon as possible.”
The deputy DG highlighted that the golden triangle including Delhi, Jaipur and Agra has been the most favourite tourist destination for the last 50 years among inbound tourists. He added that the tourism department is working on diluting the saturation of tourist flow towards states like Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan and other North-Eastern states, which are also doing well in the statistics. However, he said that it will take around 20 years to have the effect.
Chaudhary said that India needs destination development organisations to develop various destinations across the country by attracting best talents for consultations like Saudi Arabia’s planned urban area Neom. He added that the organisation should be constituted with a legal mandate and statute to give it powers to accomplish the task of synergising all the government departments.
Highlighting the changing trend in India’s tourism industry, Chaudhary said that India has shifted from being tourism-centric to community-centric and there is a need to control over-tourism in some parts of the country. “Earlier what was good for tourism was believed to be good for the community but now what is good for the community is perceived to be good for tourism. Personally, I wish to highlight the unseen intangible cultural heritage of this country,” he added.
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He highlighted that the current annual inbound tourist flow is 1.2 crore and to achieve the 2047 target, the country will need investment to develop five times the hospitality accommodation available in the country today.
Chaudhary said, “We can have aspirations but we should also ensure that we have enough facilities to fulfil those aspirations. We need to attract more investors and ensure pay parity to attract talent and keep them into this sector. Achieving this target will require political, bureaucratic as well as citizen-centric intent.”
The assistant DG also highlighted the need of destination development organisations to develop various destinations across the country by attracting best talents for consultations like Saudi Arabia’s planned urban area Neom. He added that the organisation should be constituted with a legal mandate and statute to give it powers to accomplish the task of synergising all the government departments.
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Chaudhary also emphasised on the need to increase the budget allocated to the Ministry of Tourism, claiming that half of the budget is spent on infrastructure development. “The ministry has a budget of around Rs 2,500 crores, which is smaller in comparison to other ministries. The amount spent on developing tourism-related infrastructure can be executed by public works departments and the tourism ministry can actually use that amount to empower and support the stakeholders of tourism,” he said.
Highlighting the changing trend in India’s tourism industry, Chaudhary said that India has shifted from being tourism-centric to community-centric and there is a need to control over-tourism in some parts of the country. “Earlier what was good for tourism was believed to be good for the community but now what is good for the community is perceived to be good for tourism. We need to scientifically determine the carrying capacity of places like Kullu and Manali and then work towards decreasing the tourist flow,” he added.
Plans underway for an integrated tourism experience in Mumbai
Chaudhary said that he has plans to start a Mumbai Darshan bus service run by Indian Tourism Development Corporation which can cater to budget travellers and then upgrade it into a hop-on hop-off service. He added that Mumbai will be the first Indian city to have an integrated pass for accessing all modes of transport and tourist destinations within the city.
