Tourism with safeguards
RH Khwaja, Secretary, MOT, Government of India, shared the ministry’s views by stating that Wildlife Tourism should be regulated in protected areas and permitted with appropriate regulations.
The recent interim ban on Tiger Tourism imposed by the Supreme Court of India has put the travel fraternity in fear of losing the opportunity to create wildlife tour experience for wildlife enthusiasts, as they pray for relief in the final verdict. Khwaja in his very own style painted a detailed canvas to highlight the importance of harmonious relation- ship between humans and Mother Nature.
“So far the matter is in the apex court, I’ll not comment. However, I can share my opinion on the larger issue. I have always said that the paradigm today can be easily summed as – ‘Jahaan Hai To Jaan Hai’, unlike earlier when people used to say - ‘Jaan hai to Jahaan Hai’. Or, in others words - ‘Woh Shakh Hi Na Rahi, Jo Thi Ashiyan Kabhi’.”
“To understand the broader issue, we should first ask; what is environment? Then we should come to the sub-issues and ask: what is the importance of forests? What is wildlife? What is the interface between human species and the other species of nature?,” he added.
In the Indian context, Khwaja says, our country has 16 different types of forests and 10 different bio-geographical zones. We are the 8th richest country in terms of biodiversity. Hence, we are called a mega bio-diversity country. We have 2.4 per cent of the world’s habitable landmass, wherein, we support about 17 per cent of the world’s population. We are roughly emitting about 6 per cent of global green house gases.
“Domestic
Tourism is the back bone of the Indian tourism industry. Over 70 per cent of domestic tourist visit is centered on religious and spiritual travel.
The tourism industry needs to motivate the domestic travellers to extend their stays and explore places beyond their chosen destination,”
said Sahai. He also urged FICCI to sensitise and motivate States to build budget hotels on properties owned by the government and bring tourism development on their political and economic agenda to boost revenues and create jobs,” he added.
Sahai also released the FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper on ‘Domestic Tourism - Evolution, Trends and Growth’. Building on the momentum, RH Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said, “We should work on a pragmatic approach based on the tenets of sustainability and to ‘walk the talk’. There is a need to focus on creating hygienic lodging facilities and other tourism-related infrastructure to attract tourists and all the stakeholders should support the Clean India Campaign. The State Tourism Department at Tourism Bazaar should take up inter-state partnerships, particularly in pilgrim circuits, to motivate the travellers to spend additional nights for visits around the chosen destination in other States.”
Here, Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson, FICCI Tourism Committee announced that the next edition of the Great Domestic Tourism Bazaar would be held in the last week of September 2013.
“We had delivered on the promise to organise a Great Domestic Tourism Bazaar in the previous edition of our Domestic Tourism Conclave in 2011. We hope the event will replicate the success of our inbound eventGITB that had recently celebrated its fifth successful edition in 2012.”
Moreover, Naina Lal Kidwai, Senior Vice President, FICCI in her address raised the importance of a growing domestic market, which also facilitates national integration. Here, Subhash Verma, President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), also pitched in by adding Domestic Tourism as a national movement and encouraged all tour operators to promote India to all the Indians. He also raised the need for creation of more theme parks, extension of LTC to corporate and compulsory travel for school and college students on annual basis.
The inaugural session was efficiently moderated by SanJeet, Co-Chairman, FICCI Tourism Committee, while Dipak Deva, Co- Chairman, FICCI Tourism Committee extended a warm vote of thanks summing up all the insightful takeaways from the inaugural session.