Infrastructure bars wildlife
Lack of relevant promotion, absence of infrastructure, and inadequate planning are the main challenges for tour operators to sell wildlife tourism packages to international tourists, claim stakeholders of the industry.
The main challenge we are facing today is that online bookings for wildlife areas like Ranthambore or Bandhavgarh are not given to travel agents. Hence, it creates a problem for us when we make a booking, and it becomes our responsibility to give them the wildlife safari. I think that online booking should be allowed to travel agents for reservations.
Wildlife tourism has a niche market in India but there is a lot of scope for improvement. There are many places where the wildlife and tourism departments do not work in tandem, due to which wildlife tourism is suffering. The problem is that focus is on few popular sites, which have been spoiled due to overtourism. On the other hand, good destinations are not being
promoted properly. We need to take concrete steps to check such situations and preserve nature.
In India, there is no infrastructure. For Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, etc., people plan their trips one year before since India is a
long-haul destination. However, here, the rates for safaris come only two to three months before the season starts them, since we need to put the product in our brochure one year before.
Despite being a paradise for nature and wildlife lovers, Eastern India, apart from Kaziranga National Park, is not promoted as a wildlife
destination. at these parks, as compared to other parks is very low, and the primary reason is lack of awareness. Secondly, infrastructure-wise, some of the national parks are lagging.
The future of wildlife tourism looks good but the problem with the forest department is that there is no proper
policy in place. Environmentally, we must be careful about nature while promoting wildlife tourism because we do not intend to disturb the ecological balance. If there is a proper policy in place, tour operators can plan and sell accordingly.