Tourism planning and policy

It is not a good feeling when we know we are much more capable, have a lot more potential and yet are not achieving our best due to various reasons, all we need is a stronger collective will, which we seem to lack as a country.

Tourism is a major engine of economic growth. Several countries have transformed their economies using their tourism potential to the fullest. Our great country is as fascinating as it gets for the world traveller. The diversity of landscape, language, cuisine, music, cultures, climates, religion etc is just astounding. India would be a country hard to miss for the discerning traveller, yet we are not even close to achieve our full potential in the tourism market. Our market share compared to many other developed countries are miniscule. Yes, we have made progress and we continue to do so every year and day but there is a long way ahead before we match the world leaders in tourist arrivals and growth. This even though the product we have to offer in terms of the experience of culture, cuisine and music is very diverse and rich.

We operate a travel company from the sunny state of Goa since 2013. Goa is one of those destinations which sold itself without any promotion, policy or infrastructure. The travellers basically discovered Goa by themselves and fell in love with it and its culture. Money started flowing in and businesses started to mushroom. Government practically sleepwalked into a gold mine of tax revenue and when they woke up they started promoting and pitching the state. Probably the government itself did not estimate the growth or expect the sudden boom in demand. Around this time the economy of India grew, and the spending power of Indians increased, and Goa got to be a very affordable and accessible.

Goa was not ready in terms of its infrastructure and the crowd’s kept on pouring in creating a chock a block situation. Hotels and home stays started opening without any planning and the cultural impact on Goa and Goan’s is still going on and is difficult to assess at this point. Tourism always have a price to pay and the sleepy sunny side state has paid a huge price in terms of its ecological erosion.

The thing is with good planning we the people, government and all stake holders could have created an amazing experience for all – guests, travellers and businesses. Only if we could come together which is a very big ask considering the diversity of thoughts and aspirations.

Government is now getting pro-active and emphasis is put on infrastructure development and better experience for guests and better eco-system for businesses. Stakeholders are coming together and hopefully a good synergy with planning officials will be formed to develop the tourism policies and initiatives.

All the government must do is provide a safe, clean destination and plan and manage the carrying capacity of the destination. Clean beaches, better garbage management, more toilets, better policing. The stakeholders have to come together to avoid over charging, elimination of touts and to create a environment for entrepreneurs to develop more innovative travel experiences showcasing Goa, it’s history and culture. Some of this is happening and some good steps are being taken but all we need to be careful in not to fall in the populist trap and minimalize government role in direct business.

The governments role is health, sanitation, garbage management, safety, law and order and to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and grow. We strongly believe that the young an enterprising lot will grow and blossom creating an amazing experience for the guests and in the process creating direct and indirect employment and in turn adding to taxable revenue which the government can reinvest in further developing the infrastructure.

Young leaders need to step up and bring fresh ideas and systems, hope arises from our neighbouring state where a very young leader Mr. Aditya Thackrey has taken over as the tourism minister. This is a huge opportunity and we hope to see some fresh ideas and outreach programs from the planning officials of the tourism department of Maharashtra.