The twin strategic pillars of Bharat Darshan and Atithi Devo Bhavah have popularised the tourism campaign “Incredible !ndia” all over the world. To further cement this success, the Indian government recently introduced a National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism.
The strategy aims to provide solutions to the issues of inclusive growth, focus on “return to roots” interlinked with increased access to information, enlarged interest in heritage and culture, improved accessibility and climate change concerns.
The 1988 United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s definition on sustainable tourism and 1992 Earth Summit had laid the ground for further development of sustainable tourism, and the increased human activity on climate has increased its importance significantly. The Indian strategy for sustainable tourism development will include development of certain tourism products like Cruise, Pilgrimage, Film Tourism, Eco/Wildlife/Caravan Tourism and many more. The involvement of schools, NGOs, industry associations etc in sustained cleanliness for suitable incentives is also being considered. Priority will be given to sanctioning of Central Financial Assistance for setting up way-side amenities, bio-degradable toilets and more.
With this, the travel and tourism sector is estimated to create 78 jobs per million rupees of investment, compared to 45 jobs in the manufacturing sector for similar investment. Apart from providing employment to a wide spectrum of job seekers from the unskilled to the specialised, a higher proportion of tourism benefits (jobs, MSME trade opportunities), accrue to women. Moreover, emphasis would increasingly be given to organising more short-term courses for the unskilled workforce, as well as unemployed youth, on the pattern of ‘Hunar-se-Rozgar’ and ‘skill certification of service-providers’.
The strategy was launched on 4th June, on the occasion of which Secretary Tourism Arvind Singh said that tourism and environment share a special relationship. “Their interaction with each other is a two-way process. On one hand, environmental resources constitute one of the basic ingredients of tourism,” he said. The natural and manmade setting form the tourism products which the tourist enjoys lives, and relaxes. On the other hand, the close and direct relationship between visitors, host communities, and the local environment creates a sensitive situation, whereby tourism can be both very damaging and also very positive for sustainable development. The COVID-19 pandemic has further forced the tourism sector to shift its focus to resiliency, sustainability, and interconnectedness among diverse stakeholders in the sector, the minister said. Singh said that the Ministry of Tourism with the objective to provide experience to the tourists launched the ‘Swadesh Darshan Scheme’ and has till now sanctioned 76 Projects. With the learnings of this scheme, “we have now revamped the Swadesh Darshan Scheme as Swadesh Darshan 2.0,” he said. The idea of Swadesh Darshan 2.0 is to undertake holistic development with the vision to develop Sustainable and Responsible Tourist Destinations.’ The sustainable tourism strategy further emphasises on the usage of cleaner fuels and renewable energy.
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