With the allocation for Incredible India campaigns abroad cut down drastically, tourism operators are crying foul at the apparent step-motherly treatment to inbound tourism compared to domestic tourism promotion.
The proposal for tourism ministry in the Union budget tabled in the Parliament on Saturday includes a lot of focus on pushing domestic tourism promoting 50 local tourist destinations on challenge mode in partnership with states, improving road connectivity to tourist spots and skill development schemes like hospitality institutes. However, an effort to bring back the dwindling foreign tourists back to the country has been missing.
Foreign tourist arrivals in India is yet to match the 2019 numbers before Covid, with the numbers still below one crore last year (it was 1.9 crore before Covid). This, while tourist arrivals in other tourism hotspots like Bangkok/Thailand and Dubai having shot up ever since Covid restrictions were removed about three years ago.
“It is shocking that the budget of Rs 33 crore has been reduced to Rs 3 crore. In fact the earlier allocated budget of Rs 33 crore was also minuscule and not enough for overseas promotions and publicity,” said Rajiv Mehra, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).
Not only has there been no fresh ‘Incredible India’ campaigns by the government, with declining fund allocation for inbound tourism activities by the tourism ministry, something that started way before this budget, has seen most promotional activities curtailed. Thus, there were no India pavilions at many recent international travel and tourism marts. And many Indian missions abroad were told to take up tourism promotion directly, instead of concerted activities by tourism ministry, as was done earlier.
The refocus of the government in promoting domestic tourism became much more strident and direct in the post-Covid years, especially with its focus on pushing religious tourism. Not only is ‘Incredible India’ nowhere in its marquee schemes, the ones occupying pride of place now are the likes of ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme as well as ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. And getting a fillip is PRASHAD, or the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive, which is aimed at developing and promoting religious tourism sites in the country, a move that became even more weighted after the likes of Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration and the ongoing Mahakumbh in Prayagraj.
“In comparison, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Mauritius etc. set up big tourism pavilion in international markets which give them ample opportunities to increase inbound tourism to their respective countries,” pointed out Mehra. “Our government needs to understand that without showcasing our country's tourism products in Global Travel Mart and events it is very difficult to attract tourists and reach the level of pre-Covid genuine numbers of foreign tourist arrivals even in the next 10 years.”
While India is projected to cross the pre-Covid foreign arrival numbers this year, what will make it less-lustrous is that it is now estimated that the Indian diaspora abroad now make a good chunk of the foreign arrivals into the country, for visiting relatives etc (The government also has a ‘Chalo India Global Diaspora Campaign’). This means the actual number of foreign tourists coming into the country is even less. An ‘incredible’ approach to ‘aditi devo bhava’ indeed.