Tourism - Providing
Inclusive Growth and Promoting Employment
Tourism has
been recognized as one of the major engines for inclusive growth and
employment. It has been universally acknowledged that the Travel and Tourism
Sector contributes substantially to reducing poverty and empowering women,
youth and migrant workers with new employment opportunities.
The Ministry of
Tourism, is the nodal agency for the formulation of national policies and
programmes and for the co-ordination of activities of various Central
Government Agencies, State Governments/UTs and the Private Sector for the
development and promotion of tourism in the country. The Ministry has focused on holistic development of Tourism in the
country with the objective of promoting employment and inclusive growth along
with active participation and support of the private sector.
The importance of
Tourism as a growth engine has been underlined in the recent declaration of the
G-20 Leaders of Nations Summit held in Mexico in June 2012 which reads:
“We recognize the role of travel and
tourism as a vehicle for job creation, economic growth and development, and,
while recognizing the sovereign rights of States to control the entry of
foreign nationals, we will work towards developing travel facilitation
initiatives in support of job creation, quality work, poverty reduction and
global growth.”
Growth of
Tourism
The benchmark for
the sector is the growth in the number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals and
generating valuable Foreign Exchange. The
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in India in 2011 were 6.29 million with a
growth of 8.9%, as compared to the FTAs of 5.78 million with a growth of 11.8%
during the year 2010. The growth rate of 8.9% in 2011 for India is better than UNWTO’s projected
growth rate of 4% to 5% for the world in 2011 and 7% to 9% for Asia and the Pacific.
The number of
domestic tourist visits increased from 740.21 million in 2010 as compared to
668.80 million in 2009 showing a growth of 10.7 percent. Thus, the domestic
tourism witnessed impressive growth during this period. Foreign Exchange
Earnings from tourism during
2011 were Rs. 77591 crore with a growth of 19.6 %, as compared to the Foreign
Exchange Earnings of Rs. 64889 crore with a growth of 18.1% during the year
2010 over 2009.
The objective of
the Ministry is to increase India ’s share
in world tourist arrivals to 1% from the present 0.6 % by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan. This would result in
achieving 11.37 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals by 2016. Also, the Ministry
has targeted 1495.82 million Domestic Tourism Visits by 2016. For achieving
this objective, the Ministry has stepped up its promotional activities in
important as well as potential source markets overseas and is taking several
initiatives for overall growth in the sector.
Infrastructure Development
Infrastructure
development holds the key to the sustained growth in India ’s tourism sector. Therefore,
the Ministry has been making efforts to develop quality tourism infrastructure
at tourist destinations and circuits.
A scheme for
development of nationally and internationally important destinations and
circuits through Mega Projects has been initiated. So far, 47 mega projects
have been identified out of which 32 projects have already been sanctioned. The
mega projects are a judicious mix of culture, heritage, spiritual and
ecotourism in order to give tourists a holistic perspective.
Tourism
development depends on synergy and convergence between various sectors and the
Ministry is continuing in its efforts to achieve such synergy. Due to its
efforts, an Inter-ministerial Coordination Committee for the Tourism Sector has
been set up under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary to Prime
Minister. The Committee will facilitate resolution of inter-ministerial issues
involved in the development of tourism in the country, as well as issues raised
by industry associations in the tourism sector. The first meeting of this
Committee was held on 19th January
2012 in which various issues were taken up.
Hunar Se
Rozgar
Hunar Se Rozgar (HSR) is an important means to achieve
the goal of the 12th Plan – of promoting faster, sustainable and more inclusive
economic growth. .The programme aims at creation of employable skills amongst
youth in the age group of 18 to 28 years with a minimum qualification of
passing Class 8 and provides training in programmes ranging from 6 to 8 weeks
covering Food and Beverage service and Food Production, Housekeeping Utility
and Bakery and Patisserie as well as acquiring driving skills. This programme
has been recognized as a key central initiative for skill development. The Ministry has been working
tirelessly towards broad-basing the implementation of this initiative so as to
reach youth in a much larger number all across the country. The approach in
this has been both conventional and innovative.
One of the
innovative approaches for this Hunar
Se Rozgar scheme is the tie up
with the Indian Army entitled- ‘Hunar Se Rozgar- Sena Ke Sahyog Se’ in which
Army units will provide training infrastructure free of cost and also
administer the programmes. The trainees will be expected to imbibe the spirit
of military discipline and hardiness. The academic support will be provided by
the Institutes of Hotel Management designated for the purpose. The first training
programme within this sub-initiative is already underway since 14th June at the Army Unit at Uri. The Institute of Hotel management
at Srinagar is
the partner Institute.
Campaign Clean India
One aspect that
has adversely impacted tourism in our country, both international and domestic,
relates to unsatisfactory hygiene and cleanliness at important tourist
destinations. This factor has emerged as a major road-block to full realization
of our tourism potential. The Ministry of Tourism has taken the initiative to
put in place a comprehensive strategy to effect cleanliness at tourist
destinations under the “Campaign Clean India”. The Campaign will employ a balance
of persuasion, education, sensitization, training, demonstration and regulation
for achieving its goal and will be implemented in collaboration with Central
and State Governments, Ministries, the Corporate Sector, Travel Trade, NGOs,
Educational Institutions, Media and Stakeholders.
The Campaign was
launched with a Workshop organized in New Delhi which was attended by
dignitaries including Former President of India Shri A P J Abdul Kalam,
Government Ministers, Members of Parliament, Media Luminaries as well as stars
from the Film world in addition to members of the Travel and Hospitality trade
NGOs, Corporate Sector and Media houses. Very useful suggestions were obtained
from the participants in the workshop which would be taken in to account while
detailing the strategy for taking the campaign forward. The entire exercise aims to undertake both sensitization and action at the
sites to create an acceptable level of
cleanliness and hygiene. The objective is
also to ensure that these levels are sustained through ownership and
involvement of private and public sector stakeholders. The Ministry would also
sign MoUs with 14 ministries seeking their intervention for synergy of efforts.
Thirty six
monuments have been identified by
ASI for the pilot project and ten of these have already beenadopted by Institute of Hotel
Management/IITTM . Schools and institutes will
undertake 'Shramdan' at the destination. They would also critically analyze the
solid waste management system and propose improvements. The Pilot Project of
the Campaign Clean India was launched at Qutub Minar in Delhi on 19th June 2012 by Shri Subodh Kant Sahai,
Minister for Tourism along with Kumar Selja, Minister for Culture and Minister
for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Shri Shankersinh Vaghela,
Chairman of India Tourism Development Corporation. The project has been
undertaken by ITDC in cooperation with the various stakeholder associations and
the ASI. The event also saw the release of the publicity material for the
campaign including posters, slogans and Radio Commercials. The innovative Radio
Commercials of this campaign are being run of the major FM channels in the
country.
The Ministry of
Tourism is thus committed to the development of tourism in the country so as to
benefit the common man and to provide employment opportunities to the youth in
all corners of our country.
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