India needs an empowered board
As the country struggles to control the pandemic, the tourism industry believes that the best way to promote India now to the rest of the world is to have an autonomous body in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism. This way, it can play an active ro
The tourism industry is special in its own way, claims Director General, Ministry of Tourism (MOT). “It’s not an industry in the traditional sense, where one can define its constituents clearly. It has an ever-expanding definition. But, where there are challenges, there are opportunities and that’s where the need for innovation and inventiveness comes in,” she said.
Meenakshi Sharma, Challenges to having a tourism board
The first thing we need to do is clearly define this industry, Sharma says. “In fact, the one challenge that we as government face very strongly while pushing this industry is with the unorganised workforce— those who are not part of any regulation nor structure. This is something that needs to be sorted and this pandemic has shown us that the way things are being done right now is not the best. We need to have more cross collection of data, and a structure to deal with the problems without making it regulatory. One thing we want, and the industry agrees, is to be able to offer support without having to regulate. In any industry, a lot of engagement with the government comes with regulation.
This is not good for a sector which is ever-changing.”
She added, “We now have a clean slate to work on and we can come up with new ideas. There has been some thought about having a national tourism board, and we have ideas where we can work together on promoting India. We need to think about the proper messaging that needs to go out to the world once we
open inbound tourism because India has a variety of products to offer. We’ll have to expand the definition of the tourism board and tourism stakeholders. We must keep regulations out, but facilitation in. There is a need to bring the combined forces of MOT, state tourism boards, and the industry together.”
Taking a cue from Kerala
Claiming that Kerala has been one of the best models for the promotion of tourism in India, Senior Vice President, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), says, “The government and the industry came together 20 years ago and formed the Kerala Tourism Society to market the state. We have done 11 marts so far and the MOT followed the same model successfully two years ago with India Tourism Mart
EM Najeeb,
(ITM). MOT and the industry are working together very well, but we must think about the future. Does tourism need to be at the same level as it is now, or at a different level? I believe that Indian tourism needs to be re-engineered for greater effectiveness in the future and it should be a greater commercial mode than
a bureaucratic and commercial mode. Government monitoring has advantages but at the same time the government also has limitations. We have several examples in the world and within the country where the industry and the government have been working together successfully.”
Affirming the idea of a tourism board, he shares, “The question is whether we need to have a different mode of promotion in India and if we need a tourism promotion board that should be working with MoT. We need to figure if the board will advise the government and have statutory powers so that many things can be decided by it. It needs to be constituted with industry stakeholders, professionals, academicians and trade representations to see if they can work together more effectively. This way the government policies will be implemented effectively and quickly. Several good things have happened in the last few years while working with the ministry. However, during this COVID-19 lockdown period, despite having MOT and NITI Aayog and the government agencies, the industry couldn’t get a financialpackage for tourism. Had there been a board, something could have happened, as it would understand the grievances of the industry. I believe that we should have a board with the constitution of a professional organisation, so that it works as a corporate entity and can look after the entire functioning of Indian tourism under MOT’s guidance and policies.”
All for the board
Arjun Sharma, Chairman, Select Group, claims that he has