Return of the great Indian traveller
Forget the firang. Travel experts advise on the need to concentrate on the dependable, growing, high-spending Indian traveller. Give the aam aadmi more affordable, tourism facilities all across our diverse land
Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

The national tourism organisations of more and more countries are making a beeline for India, trying to court the Indian tourist: the world’s highest-spending visitor. Even the once-lethargic, chalta hai, domestic tourist industry is waking up and smelling the coffee. Western nations might be facing financial crisis after financial crisis but in spite of the doomsayers in our land claiming that everything is going down the drain, perceptions tell a different story. Cellphone penetration is up, digital TV has become the rule rather than the exception, and the number of motor vehicles from scooters to SUVs outpaces the construction of highways.

Not every Indian is a tourist but everyone is affected by the multiplier effect of the tourism rupee. That is the productivity of the high-end expenditure of tourism as it goes down the value chain: Tourism service providers > wholesalers > manufacturers > raw material producers. And this economic activity is spreading. Digital TV has brought the world to everyone’s door and so, everyone wants to know more and see more. Bollywood has sensed this. English-Vinglish, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and the increasing number of films being shot abroad, reflect this.

Future prospects

Recently, at the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) seminar, we got an insight into the aspirations of tourism professionals. TAAI was born in1951, has 2,500 members and offers a good insight into the future prospects of the travel industry.

The Euro crisis has sent a tsunami of despair through the travel fraternity. Greece is teetering on the edge of a precipice. Ireland and Portugal are only marginally better. Britain is so heavily in debt that it has cut back on National Health benefits for its increasingly ageing population. In the US, unemployment figures have leapt to 12 million, their National Debt is $16 trillion, and their economy stands at the edge of a fiscal cliff. Our traditional tourism source markets have shrivelled.

Online tourism

To balance the perspective, the astute Iqbal Mulla, President of TAAI, lined up a panel of experts to paint a more positive picture of the challenges of online business. Will our mobile penetration throw a new light on the travel scene? Will it help the aam aadmi to travel?

"Yes," said Hector D’souza of Orient Travels. Eighty per cent of travellers access information on mobile devices, 13 per cent on laptops and 7 per cent on tablets. Migration to smaller devices is the trend. There is, however, a gap between accessing information and deciding to buy a ticket. This gap, too, is being bridged. According to Jaidev Singh, Regional Director of Expedia, travel agents can get access to more than 15,000 hotels worldwide with excellent rates and choice of accommodation. But then, does the average Indian, really trust something so impersonal as electronic communication? Isn’t a human interface necessary for the final, decision? Said Jaidev, "I believe there is a growing market that truly buys online, and does not need assistance in a person-to-person manner. Expedia also has call centres that cater to those customers that need human interface, besides having a large set of travel agents who work with us, making the most of the online and offline world." That is a sensible customer-friendly solution, bridging the online and human contact worlds.

Filling the void

But are there only two worlds of travellers: The IT savvy and the IT dodos? Our much-hyped demographic dividend claims that a majority of Indians are between the age of 18 and 35. Most of them are likely to have mobile phones and, consequently, are potential clients for online travel bookings. But would casual labourers, street vendors and "Class IV" government employees, who account for a many of the new mobile phone users, choose to travel on holidays, even in India, if they could afford it? Unlikely as it sounds, an increasing number do take such tours, primarily as pilgrims but with a strong vacation element tagged on. The more venturesome of these are moving into India’s 5 per cent of air travellers.

There was an effort to tap the untaxed, agricultural income of our rural agrimoghuls by establishing airports in every district headquarters. The dogged Captain Gopinath, with his Simply Fly Air Deccan, then launched the low-fare carriers before gracefully surrendering to better times. Together they brought flying within the reach of the aspiring middle class.

High-spending travellers

There’s a constant up-welling in our society as road and rail travellers become air travellers. A pointer in this direction is the fact that the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd , which runs five luxury tourist trains (The Indian Splendour, The Heritage of India, Treasures of India, Gems of India and The Indian Panorama) has begun to promote international package tours. These have been so successful that, according IRCTC official Abhinav Gupta, they’re now offering tours to Dubai and Thailand, have plans to take tourists to Singapore and Malaysia and are even considering tours to Europe.

This urge to holiday abroad has attracted the attention of foreign governments. Their National Tourist Organisations have also realised that a single Bollywood film, set in their country, results in an immediate influx of high-spending Indian tourists. The visiting King of Spain, Juan Carlos, asked Manmohan Singh if he had seen Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, much of which had been shot in Spain. The Spanish monarch had viewed it and was delighted. Great Indian Weddings are also much sought after. Said a Malayaisn wedding planner, "When we quoted a price which, frankly, we thought they would balk at they said ‘Only that much’!" Are the foreign exchange earnings generated by foreign tourists really so important? Quite frankly, no!

There are a much larger number of Indian tourists travelling to a far greater number of Indian destinations than there are foreigners. Indian tourists contribute considerably more to the Indian economy than foreigners do. Encouraging Indians to travel within our own country will do more for national integration than all the homilies delivered by assorted netas.

The much-maligned, and politically wounded, Indian Railways is doing its bit. Their 12-day Bharat Darshan tour starts from Kohlapur, Pune and Mumbai and covers Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra, Mathura, Amritsar, Haridwar and Jammu. It provides three meals, morning and evening tea, local transport for sightseeing and two nights in a dharamshala. All this for just Rs 6,700! The government should consider running more such trains.

Promoting domestic tourism

Moreover, Doordarshan must use its enormous resources to promote domestic tourism in a creative way. We know we have the world's greatest mountains, an ancient cultural heritage, an enormous coastline etc., etc. How many of us know that there is a lake high in the bare mountains of Ladakh where a mysterious metal monster is said to appear unexpectedly? Or a crater in Maharashtra gouged out by an ancient meteorite which could hold tiny, alien, life-forms; or a place in Andhra where they can craft your dreams for you? This is the endlessly intriguing India we, and the world, are looking for. Let's demand goods and services for the Indian traveller as good as any offered abroad. China has done it, so have Malaysia and Singapore. When we do it, foreigners will come without an expensive Incredible India campaign. The time of the Indian traveller is here and now.

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