Context

• Recently, State Tourism Ministers gathered at Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) in a first-of-its-kind meeting to discuss, debate and deliberate on modes and mechanisms to develop tourism in India
• The three-day National Conference of State Tourism Ministers concluded with co-developing ‘The Dharamshala Declaration’.

About Dharamshala Declaration

• Description: The document titled “Dharamshala Declaration-2020: Sustainable and Responsible Tourism” asserts that India will play a pivotal role in contributing toward global tourism recovery driven mainly through domestic tourism.
  • It announces to bring in necessary interventions including visa reforms, ease of travel, travel-friendly immigration facilities at airports and openness to international travel.
• Background: The Dharamshala Declaration’ draws inspiration from Indian PM Modi’s ‘Whole of Government’ approach, which enables the breaking down of silos and encouraging synergies across various government corridors.
  • Also, in his Independence Day speech in 2019, PM Modi urged every Indian who could afford to travel, to visit at least 15 locations in India by 2022 and discover the country.
• Position India as global leader: The document talks about the short-term and long-term goals in the tourism sector as follows:
  • Short term goals: The Indian tourism industry will strive towards recovery of tourism to the pre-pandemic level by 2024, achieve $150 billion GDP contribution, USD 30 billion foreign exchange earnings and 15 million foreign tourist arrivals by that period.
  • Medium term: $250 billion contribution to the GDP by 2030, 137 million jobs, more than 25 million foreign tourist arrivals and USD 56 billion in foreign exchange earnings.
  • Long-term: Ensuring the positioning of India as one of the leaders in the world in the tourism sector and revenue goal of $1 trillion by 2047.
• Action Plan: In the declaration, the Tourism Ministry has come up with a strategy to encourage more Indians to travel domestically and explore India’s natural, cultural, and spiritual beauty while simultaneously reaching the goal of an ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ (interaction and mutual understanding).
• Tourism Clubs: The Union Tourism and Culture Minister called on states to start work on “a war footing” by establishing tourism clubs.
  • The proposal is to work on making Yuva Tourism clubs at district and mandal levels.
• Boost international tourism: In parallel, the Tourism Ministry has also been working with the Ministry of External Affairs to identify 20 Indian missions abroad with the highest tourist footfalls to India and build country-specific strategies to attract foreign tourists.
• Significance: The Conference holds significance in the current context of India’s G20 presidency (in 2023). G-20 will be used as a platform to showcase India’s age-old dictum of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ and tourism potential to the world.

Pandemic and reimagining tourism

• Rethinking approach: The tourism sector has been severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The Government of India’s Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme was recently enhanced by ₹50,000 crore, from ₹4.5 lakh crore to ₹5 lakh crore.
  • It seeks to benefit enterprises in hospitality and related sectors such as hotels and restaurants, marriage halls, travel agents, tour operators, adventure and heritage facilities affected by pandemic.
  • Owing to these steps, all the major tourism indices such as domestic air passenger traffic, hotel occupancy and tourist footfalls have shown signs of recovery over the past few months.
• Draft framework: The Ministry of Tourism, after wide-ranging consultations, has prepared a draft National Tourism Policy 2022.
  • It aims at improving the framework conditions for tourism development in the country, supporting tourism industries, strengthening tourism support functions and developing tourism sub-sectors.
  • The policy also gives a special impetus to private sector participation through public-private-partnerships (PPP).
• Guiding principles: These include promoting sustainable, responsible and inclusive tourism in line with our civilisational ethos. The National Green Tourism Mission aims at institutionalising this approach.
• Sub-missions: The National Tourism policy also aims to give impetus to digitalisation, innovation and technology through the National Digital Tourism Mission and skilling through the Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Mission.
• Significance: Once the new policy is ratified, the Ministry would have a new set of tools and frameworks that are required to execute on the vision and goals we have set for ourselves.
• Other initiatives: The Ministry of Tourism has also launched a number of initiatives and implemented a four-pronged development strategy that focuses on:
  • Improving the connectivity - air, rail, and roads
  • Enhancing the tourism infrastructure and dependent services
  • Streamlining branding and promotion
  • Showcasing the culture and heritage

Tourism Sector in India: Role & importance

• The tourism sector is an integral pillar of the “Make in India” programme and encourages the development of multiple-use infrastructure, eg hotels, resorts & restaurants, transport infrastructure (aviation, roads, shipping & railways) and healthcare facilities.
• In India, the travel and tourism sector is one of the largest employers, with nearly 12.75% (including both direct and indirect employment) of employment share in 2018-19.

Government initiatives to boost tourism sector in India

• Swadesh Darshan Scheme: It is a Central Sector Scheme launced in 2014-15 for Integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country.
• PRASHAD Scheme : National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) Scheme: It focuses on identifying and developing pilgrim sites across the country to promote religious tourism.
• ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’:It seeks to enhance the bonding between the states and showcases the rich heritage, culture, customs and traditions of the paired states.
  • Through student exchange programs, it enables people to have a better understanding and appreciate the diversity of the nation.
• Dekho Apna Desh initiative: It seeks to organise webinars, quiz, pledge, discussions to keep people connected with the stakeholders and to encourage citizens to travel within the country.
• Adopt Heritage Project: It was launched in 2017 as a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), State/UTs Governments.
  • It aims to involve public sector companies, private sector companies, and corporate citizens/individuals to take up the responsibility for making our heritage and tourism more sustainable.
  • It envisages the development and maintenance of tourist amenities at heritage sites and making them tourist-friendly.
• Destination North East-2020: It is an annual event of the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region highlighting various potentials like eco-tourism, culture, heritage and business of the North East Region.
• Gati Shakti Master Plan: It seeks to develop ‘holistic infrastructure’ by incorporating the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc.
  • Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive.
• Bharat Gaurav Scheme: Launched in November 2021, the scheme aims to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and historical places by Bharat Gaurav trains (Theme- based Tourist Circuit trains).