The Hindu Business Line : India's tourism potential `being held back'

"India's tourism market has great potential but it is being held back artificially. Though several policies and programmes have been framed for the development of tourism, their implementation is not satisfactory," according to Mr Geoffrey Lipman, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

In a conversation with Business Line on the sidelines of the recent World Tourism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Lipman said that, "India has the potential to figure within the first half-a-dozen countries. It has culture not seen elsewhere, its people are open-minded and it has hotels that compare with some of the best in the world."

Praising the tourism model perfected by Rajasthan, he suggested that other States should try and emulate it, especially in circuit toursim. In this context, Mr Lipman was of the view that tourism projects are better implemented when they are conceived at the State level rather than directed from the Centre.

Public-pvt partnership

"In Rajasthan, for example, the State is creating tourism circuits in which both public and private sector identify infrastructure needs and work together to ensure implementation," Mr Lipman had said in his keynote speech at the conference, while dwelling on the subject of public-private partnership in tourism.

Pointing to how the opening up of the aviation sector in India had made a huge difference to the travel and tourism industry, Mr Lipman said that aviation is necessary for social development and for bringing people together.

The emergence of low-cost carriers is significant and comparable with the invention of the jumbo jet.

Low-cost carriers are transforming the tourism industry and enabling even ordinary people to travel at very affordable prices.

"Gone are the days when tourism was confined to the rich," Mr Lipman said.

Indians, big travellers

The travel bug seems to have bitten Indians if statistics provided at the conference are any indication.

Outbound traffic from India was 5 million passengers in 2006 and is expected to grow to 7 million this year.