This post was originally published on here
A while back and over a period of several years, one was handling assignments for a state’s tourism body. This was the cusp between a time of nascent tourism in that state and today’s over-tourism in certain pockets and blanks in others.
There were a limited number of hotels and at that time, much of the hospitality industry was state-driven and state-owned. A policy’s success or failure was measured, substantially, by budget allocation and the number of tourist arrivals — never mind that the same tourist registered in a hotel in one town and carried on registering in other places; as far as the statistic was concerned, that singular turned into multiples. While that simple scrutiny isn’t always applied, today, Aadhaar cards and passports, which are mandatory while checking into a hotel, can easily be filtered by a central system to see who has gone where — and how many times.
Recently, while sitting in a sarkari waiting room, one had time enough to wade through some tourism promotional material that was at hand. It did not come as a surprise but was disappointing to see that what one and one’s associates had created ages back was still doing the rounds. A few sentences had been altered (was that AI at work?). The quality of pictures, one must admit, was far better. It is accepted that the basics, like history and distances, won’t alter, but some things will.
In this sector, where both thinking on one’s feet and vulnerability go hand in hand, what are the benchmarks that will separate success from failure — and what lies in that huge grey area between both? Is this to be sustainable by compulsion or sustainable by choice — or should sustainability and its fine sentiments be flung down the closest khud?
There is no doubt that domestic tourism provides the bulk of tourism traffic — and all else apart, this is wonderful as I’ve always felt that this is one of the strongest methods of national integration and seeing what a wonderful country we have. Yet, why do we bury our heads in the sand and get all uppity when it comes to exploring the international market?
Let’s take a look at what the world around us is doing — despite the wars, the madness and a ‘let’s sit tight moment’. This year, 45.5 million international visitors are expected to arrive in the United Kingdom. This is driven by strategic government support and innovative global marketing campaigns. What is important here is that the visitors are not going to remain concentrated in, say, just London or Edinburgh, but will travel to areas that lie in the penumbra of the main destinations.
Across the world, in numerous places and in several ways, controls are being tightened to check over-tourism and natural and cultural exploitation. The EU has introduced new rules under its Green Directives to tighten how environmental claims are made and to prevent ‘green-washing’. This means that tourism businesses in other continents that are selling into Europe will have back claims of being ‘sustainable’ by hard evidence.
Spain’s recent tourism policy is worth taking a look at. After decades of getting tourists in a limited number of places, this is now shifting to invite travellers in search of authentic experiences. A segment of marketing is focused on interests and not geography. The game plan is long and goes beyond the limited term of a minister or bureaucrat — which, often enough, is the case in India (and elsewhere).
Tourism needs to be treated as a matter of governance as much as a marketing issue.
Simply put, the approach has to be ‘resident first’ — this automatically creates both interest and employment and enhances the visitor experience. The same land has to try and deliver many things — economic growth with a strong local emphasis, restoration of nature that has been damaged (if it hasn’t already been destroyed outright), minimising the carbon imprints (which includes control of littering), and guarding both cultural and natural assets.
The scope of a solitary article defined by a word limit isn’t enough to do justice to the subject at hand. Especially when it is a substantial driver of employment and a significant contributor to the economy — and is something that is constantly evolving and changing. Everyone travels in different ways and looks for different things. I’ve still not understood why some young men lose their shirts in more ways than one, the moment they arrive in the hills. They can easily jump and cavort in streams and rivers closer to wherever they come from and take the help of technology to place a snow-covered mountain in the backdrop as they post their reels. They could save themselves some money and the locals and the police a lot of bother.
Needless to say, perceptions of travel change with age. The fact that every successful destination and every dish on the table now has to be reel-worthy and Instagram-admirable can make or break a place. This is where the experiential aspect of tourism steps in.
A word used often enough is ‘fall’. A place can have rainfall, snowfall, ‘guest-fall’, ‘tourist-fall’ but hardly ever, a windfall.
— The writer is an author based in Shimla
