Tourism in India

Buoyed by tourism forecast, India plans to hardsell Buddhist tag

tourism india Representational image | PTI

Excited by the World Travel and Tourism Council's forecast on Thursday that India will be the world's third largest tourism economy in ten years, India's tourism mandarins are planning big. India is currently in the seventh position.

One big catch they are eyeing are the Buddhist countries of the east, with whom there is already enhanced political, economic and strategic engagement as part of India's Act East policy. These countries have large populations with deep pockets, who are also religious.

One thrust area is going to be the Buddhist religious and heritage spots such as Gaya, Kushinagara and Sanchi, which already attract thousands of pilgrim tourists from Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other far eastern and southeast Asian countries. The tourism ministry is organising a Buddhism conclave in October which will also give opportunity to tour operators from these countries to project the Indian Buddhist circuit to tourists, pilgrims and even scholars.

This is also viewed as part of the plans to project India's soft power in the regions which are strategically important to India. China has been showcasing its Buddhist heritage, trying to reach out to the religious elite in these countries.

The WTTC report, released Thursday, had also predicted that earnings from tourism will double from this year's Rs. 15,000 crore to Rs. 32,000 crore in 2028, and give one crore more jobs.

WTTC president Gloria Guevara had complimented the Indian government for "some extremely proactive steps", among which Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma would list the introduction of e-visa as the foremost. “There has also been better marketing abroad and development of infrastructure at home,” said Verma. Launched in November 2014, e-visas, valid for 60 days, are now available to tourists from 163 countries. The response has been good. About 15 per cent more tourists came to India in 2017, and their dollar-spend in India was 20 per cent more than in 2016. Medical tourists get 120-day e-visas.

Though India is 25th in the world in terms of number of tourists landing, India is the 13th in foreign exchange earning. Tourism officials believe that this is because India gets relatively richer tourists who spend more dollars and days in India.

Among the infrastructure development initiatives, Verma would list the move to offer monuments for adoption as a major one. In the scheme, companies or even individuals are invited to adopt, spruce up and maintain the facilities around the monuments in consultation with the custodians such as the Archaeological Suvery of India.

The move is claimed to be one step ahead of the two decade-old National Culture Fund scheme by which companies were encouraged to donate social-responsibility funds for upkeep of specific monuments. The new initiative has received about 80 offers.

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