Jerky
journey

Tourism industry in India has not had a smooth flight in spite of tremendous potential.
Hugh & Colleen Gantzer take a look at the wind pockets that have affected Indian tourism 

Photo: Renu Manish Sinha

THE best way to summarise the tourism scenario in our country is through this old nursery rhyme: "When it’s good, it’s very, very good; But when it’s bad it’s horrid."

And this, surely, is no compliment for all our planners because international and domestic tourism is the world’s fastest growing industry today, even if you include the "industry" of terrorism.

The reason why our tourism facilities fall woefully short of affordable international standards, is that our decision-makers still treat tourism with the fastidious wariness of a tabby-cat stepping around puddles. For all their lip service to tourism, they still retain the old socialist mindset of aaram haram hai, at least for public consumption. How else can one account for the fact that though India began to welcome tourists formally in the Nehruvian era, yet we have been overtaken by China, Singapore and Malaysia whose tourism profile, then, had not even peeped over the horizon?

In fact, thanks to the skewed taxes on tourism, Indians find it cheaper to go abroad for a holiday than to a domestic destination.

So the question is what went wrong? Many things, however, babudom has been the main villain.

In their myopic wisdom they decreed that LTC travellers could either go home or, at a pinch, on a pilgrimage. Never, never on a fun-filled relaxing holiday.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had the courage to break this restrictive rule by allowing Indian holiday-makers to choose any destination in the land for their vacation. He also introduced the five-day week concept, which allowed Indians to get a feel of having a long weekend at their disposal. And, as a fallout of his brother’s otherwise unsuccessful industrial venture, the first real people’s car, the red Maruti 800, was born. These were the three socio-economic factors that boosted the lift-off of domestic tourism in our country.

Then, Tamil Nadu’s largely forgotten tourism visionary, the late Deenadayal, quickly tapped the middle class’ new interest in travel by launching TN’s temple tours. Their pilgrim destinations filled their coaches and their coaches filled their tourist bungalows at pilgrim destinations.

It was a win-win situation for everyone and soon the people, who started these journeys huddling together in state and caste groups, became a unified community of travellers protecting and defending each other zealously. Along with this came India’s first fortnightly travel and tourism column to be carried in a national newspaper and, a little later, India’s first TV travel documentary series in English, aired by all channels of Doordarshan. That was before cable TV channels sprung up like monsoon mushrooms all over.

At about the same time, Haryana got the brilliant idea of turning their highways into profitable tourism resources courtesy , Bansi Lal, S. K.‘Chappie’ Misra and the tireless Ashok Pawha. Since these highways were patronised by Delhi’s army of 9-to-5 workers and tourists flocking Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Kashmir on holidays, the Haryana complexes had a captive flock of travellers. Perhaps that’s why they named them after birds. Also, blazing new trails, came the pioneering ITDC entering the territory where the private hotel chains feared to tread.

Admittedly, Deenadayal, Misra and Pawha were bureaucrats. But once they had set the standards, and their "lesser" colleagues saw the perks that tourism afforded — foreign junkets, freebies in hotels, being feted at high-profile conferences and conventions — they saw the lucrative prospects of the tourism industry.

They all wanted their pound of flesh and, being bureaucrats, they used the only thumb-screw they had: rules, regulations, restrictions, prohibitions.

Luxury tax was imposed on hotel guests. Netas and babus, of course, didn’t pay luxury tax for the multiple air-conditioners and chauffeur-driven cars in their homes. Bar licence fees hit the roof: netas and babus could always rely on festive tributes of "Chivas" and "Dom Perignon". Recently a hotelier confirmed that it still requires 57 different licences to build a new hotel.

So how can we host the Commonwealth Games? Cynics say by pulling the Lalit Modi stunt — hold them in South Africa.

Clearly, tourism in India has become over-bureaucratised. The IAS — the Indian Amateur Service — has a stranglehold on virtually every tourism organisation. Strangely, however, not even the probationers in the Lal Bahadur Academy of Administration, Mussoorie are exposed to even a module on tourism. We have already mentioned a few bureaucrats who have done well in tourism. To that list we must add the name of redoubtable Amitabh Kant, credited with the success of the "Incredible India" campaign. There is just one other person, but he is currently the target of so much in-house jealousy that even a mention of his name will be critically destabilising.

It is, however, significant that the three most successful state tourism stories were generated when non-IAS officials headed the organisation.

Goa had its tourism hey-day under V. A. P. Mahajan , who started his career as a tourist guide in Delhi. Karnataka’s "Jungle Lodges and Resorts", emulated by many, equalled by none, was nurtured by Vinay Luthra, an officer of the Indian Forest Service, who is now the boss of the Karnataka Tourism Development Corporation.

And Madhya Pradesh’s continuing superb performance goes to the credit of railway officer Ashwani Lohani and its PR genius, Guru Chahal. Neither of them are members of the twice-born cadre.

But where does the domination of some hit-and-run babus leave Indian tourism? Dysfunctional. To take a single case in point. The United Nations Development Project (UNDP) tied up with the Ministry of Tourism to develop ‘Rural Tourism’ projects. We were asked by the international organisation to inspect three of their joint projects. The one in Gujarat was excellent. Karnataka’s Banvasi had great potential because of its heritage of village crafts but its tourist accommodation facility was bizarre. Its fa`E7ade featured two enormous windows shaped like eyes and its main door was a rolling shutter.

As for MP’s Pranpur, visitors living in the rooms on the first and second floors of a wing were expected to cross an open yard to use a single, Indian-style toilet. And yet, the ministry awarded it a prize for being the best rural tourism project.

Clearly, the ministry feels the need to tap itself on the back because it is unlikely that others will.

According to Dr Harsh Verma of the UN’s World Tourism Organisation, in January 2008, we received 5,91,337 international visitors. In January 2009, this fell to 4,87,000, a drop of 17.6 per cent. In February 2008, 5,61,393 foreigners arrived; in February 2009, only 5,02,000 did: a fall of 10.6 per cent. In March 2008, we hosted 5,41, 478 but only 4,72,000 in March 2009: a drop of 12.8 per cent.

Significantly, however, in the same three months our tourism receipts fell by 31.9 per cent, 29.3 per cent and 30.5 per cent. In other words, the high spenders are shunning India, leaving it to the budget travellers. We are, in effect, slamming Indian tourism. We are aiming for quantity regardless of how much damage these dropouts may cause to our social fabric and image.

It is about time that the ministry stopped squandering money on cosmetic achievements to score brownie points with their political bosses.

Qualified people must audit each of the rural tourism projects. They should meet the standards of their targeted visitors.

Captain Gopinath took a calculated gamble when he launched his Air Deccan. It changed the entire complexion of Indian aviation. But if his gamble had not paid off would the Minister have asked the Indian flyer to bale him out with a "Deccan Rescue Tax?"

The great Indian middle class is ready and willing to be courted. Give it the tourism facilities that match the allure of multiplexes and shopping malls, and our tourism industry, and the Ministry, will never have to look back.

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