It gives me great pleasure to be here today and to present the
National Tourism Awards intended to honour various stakeholders
in the tourism industry for their contribution to promoting India
as a tourist destination and improving the experience of tourists.
I would like to congratulate the winners of the awards under
various categories and commend the Ministry of Tourism for instituting
a new award for 'Best Civic Management of a Tourist Destination
in India'.
These awards encourage state governments, municipalities and
local government bodies, and various travel, tourist and hospitality
organisations to review best practices and lost opportunities,
to improve and excel.
Since times immemorial, India has been a highly desired destination
for wonderers, scholars and explorers. The names of Fa Hsien
and Hsuan Tsang, Alberuni and Ibn Battuta are familiar to students
of history. A 10th century historian described India as "the
land with the sweetest smell" and said its perfumes came
from Paradise itself. In the same period a ship master from
the Persian Gulf was perhaps the first promoter of tourism in
the modern sense when he wrote an account and called it The
Book of the Wonders of India. Languages like Arabic and
Persian have proverbs relating to the excellence of India. Travellers
from European lands followed suit. Expressions like Indian
summer and Kohinoor innings found their way into English
in the colonial period.
Friends
This audience is aware that times and technology have induced
qualitative changes in the concept of tourism. Globalisation,
advances in transport and communications, and the growth of
the service industry have transformed modern tourism into a
complex mass phenomenon. Tourism has been characterised as 'the
largest peace time movement of people'. Globally, it is estimated
that there were 880 million international tourist arrivals last
year. This is a remarkable growth compared to 25 million international
travellers in 1950.
Tourism has also emerged as an important provider of employment
and a significant contributor to prosperity of nations. It enables
'people-to-people contacts' and thus contributes to a better
understanding of diverse cultures and languages.
India is an ideal tourist destination. History, rich cultural
heritage, diversity of flora, fauna and landscapes contribute
to it in great measure. Despite this, our full potential is
yet to be tapped. We recorded over 5 million foreign tourist
arrivals, in addition to about 550 million domestic tourist
visits. Even so, tourism is an important sector of our economy
and has contributed over US$ 11 billion to our foreign exchange
earnings in 2009.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The government stands committed to facilitating the visits
of tourists, promoting development of tourism and hospitality
infrastructure, encouraging niche tourism segments and enhancing
the skills of personnel in the tourism sector. At the same time,
we should be aware of the significant challenges that remain.
Four of these come to mind:
First, as we seek to adapt the various elements of the
tourism sector to the diverse political economies of our states,
care must be taken so that tourism empowers and does not result
in any negative consequences for the rights of local peoples
and their access to local resources. Tourism must also ensure
that environmental sustainability is maintained and the integrity
of the political economy is not impacted.
Second, just as we seek to make the developmental process
more inclusive, we must also ensure that the tourism sector
is more inclusive from the point of view of composition of tourists
and the economic beneficiaries of tourism. The tourism industry
must not accentuate existing social and economic inequalities
but must seek to dampen them.
Third, it is estimated that the outbound travel market
from India is a growth sector accounting for over 10 million
outbound trips and over US$ 8 billion of international tourism
expenditure by our citizens. The outbound Indian traveller is
being wooed with attractive offers and travel packages. The
scale of outbound tourism is a challenge to all stakeholders
to attempt to redirect some of them to tourist destinations
within the country.
Finally, we need to look at tourism not in isolation
but also for its potential to attract further investments, promote
trade and enhance friendly contacts and cooperation with peoples
and nations. We could perhaps undertake to actively encourage
intra-regional tourism in Asia in general, and in the South
Asian region in particular.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We have seen the manner in which happenings like the global
economic meltdown, pandemics, terror attacks and domestic and
regional conflicts have derailed tourist arrivals. These incidents
test our national resolve and necessitate acute awareness of
a precautionary culture, and its practice. We must demonstrate
that the government and the people of India are determined to
overcome these challenges.
I once again congratulate the awardees and thank the Hon'ble
Minister of Tourism for having invited me to participate in
today's function.
