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International Tourism in India. Read this article to learn about the growth and development of ‘International Tourism’ in India. This article is written for class 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 students and can be used by CBSE, ICSE, College and University students. Further, this article will also help you to get ahead in various competitive examinations like the UPSC examination.
Contents:
- Introduction to International Tourism in India
- Evolution of International Tourism in India
- Concept and Definitions of International Tourism in India
- Impacts of International Tourism in India
- Models of International Tourism in India
- Trends of International Tourism in India
- Opportunities and Constraints for International Tourism in Different Regions in India
- International Tourism and the Future in India
Development of International Tourism in India: Introduction, History, Trends, Opportunities and Future
International Tourism in India – Introduction and History to International Tourism
International tourism has become a unique approach to conquer the modern era. It has made the world a global village where all the nations have crossed their barriers in lust of socio-economic gains. It has become a dream of millions and a game of strategies, where each country is trying to win the situation by providing it a status of industry. According to one professional opinion, “Tourism has come to acquire the characteristics of an industry.”
The tourism has come to be known as a dream machine which makes the life of people easy and happy. According to an observation, “For the holiday or leisure tourist, the industry may also be described as a ‘Dream Machine.’ It realises a dream moment in the tourists’ otherwise toilsome life.”
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International tourism has promoted sophistication and glamour in the life-styles of the people. The values have changed and so life has taken a significant meaning in crystallizing all the aspects. Travel has added to its status as it broadens human horizons.
Recognising the importance of tourism industry on international horizon, many researchers have admitted with an expression, “Tourism seems to have its impact now and it will have its impact over the globe on a wide scale.”
Tourism has affected the most vital element of economy i.e. earning and developing reserves of foreign exchange, obviously for this reason, all the countries are revolving on this axis to earn and develop reserves of foreign exchange by quicker means. Thus, tourism gains a vital status in the present day socio-economic systems world over.
The tourism has also performed a responsible role in developing a new culture. In this regard it has been rightly observed as, “Tourism has generated a third wave civilisation in the first, second and third world countries.”
Civilisations have grown and have always required some fundamental attractions as their basis to survive. Tourism has become the lifeblood of all modern civilisation and subsequently offered a strong basis for their survival.
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A conference was held in Rome in 1967 under the sponsorship of WTO. It started, ” Tourism represented a conquest by man which freed him from the slavery and anxiety of wearing and dehumanised world, allowing him to get away from the environment and giving him the possibility of coming to the terms with himself and others in a more relaxed and natural climate.”
International Tourism in India – Evolution of Tourism
Travel and tourism are complimentary and very ancient in their origin. The right to travel was bestowed on man with the formation of the world itself. The records of Hieum Tstang, Ibnbatuta, Macro Polo and others justify this concept and hold that the right to travel is related to a sort of eternal enjoyment.
This has also been explained by another professional as, “Travel and tourism as I understand are the most enabling, inspiring and abiding human passions. It is an expression of mind and adventure of soul.”
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The concept related to evolution of tourism involves less methodological sophistication and theoretical awareness. In this only an ethnographic (descriptive) approach could be applied to know from where the travel actually started. Travel and tourism has taken many forms through the ages.
“In the beginning, doubtless, man was his own beast of burden, unless he was married to this day, man is wagon and donkey and all still in certain areas.”
The story of growth of tourism can be studied into three phases:
1. Paleolithic Age.
2. Middle Age.
3. Renaissance and after.
1. Paleolithic Age:
Inertia was the early characteristic of man, mobility was less due to lack of many facilities but as time passed, man’s passion forced him to search for better conditions of life. Movement gained momentum, when money and wheel were discovered. Egypt and India, became popular centres of civilisations from where prosperity flourished to Europe and Asia Minor.
The main civilisations which could be focused are:
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i. Romans:
Romans were the first pleasure travellers and gained recognition for a well-developed road, land, and sea communication systems. They visited destinations like Egypt, Greek, Ostia etc. They were also interested in spas for many health reasons, they were leaders in travel industry.
According to an observation, “subsequent development of spas after their original use for recreational purpose by Romans played a big role in the development of pleasure travel in many countries in Europe.”
Roman civilisation was highly developed and according to one observation, they were, “globe trotters who spent the best part of their lives in boats.”
ii. India:
When Alexander visited India, he found well maintained roads lined by Dharmshalas and this led to the interpretation that tourism related activities were of high order in India. Emperor Ashoka was a great pioneer in spreading the spiritual message to East Asia, West Asia and Sri Lanka.
2. Middle Age:
This was the period of demotion of travel activity due to fall of Roman Empire. The operational activity packed up in 1000 A. D., when the European Roads became safe again. Religious motivation became the major force in moving people from one place to another. The famous travellers of this period were Benjamin of Thadela, Macro Polo and Ibn Batuta, who travelled to Europe, Persia and India. Macro Polo, while on his way to Afghanistan discovered the unknown Pamir Plateau.
3. The Renaissance and After:
The Renaissance phase bloomed with the romance of travel, widening the dimensions of human horizons. This was the period of exploration to France, Germany, Italy and Egypt. The Industrial Revolution had awakened man and the sixteenth century experienced the development of coaches in hungry, luxuries inns started mushrooming in England and the popularity of travel reached to Scotland and France. Samuel Johnson took a journey to Italy in 1976.
His friend records him saying, “… a man who has not been to Italy is always conscious of inferiority from his not having seen what it is expected, a man should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of Mediterranean … all our religion, almost all our law, all our arts and all that sets us above the savages has come to from the shores of Mediterranean.”
In this period the advent of railways and shipping services gave a new shape to the travel industry. The air-services added to its glamour and the jets brought the supersonic stage.
Evolution of Tourism as a Passion:
Man’s development of behavioural aspect brought the knowledge related activities into light. Man started moving out to maintain the spirituality of mind and conducted acts of pilgrimage. India, Sri-Lanka and Europe, became centres of activity.
Man’s commercial instinct of gaining money, opened doors to many neighbouring countries. Trade centres flourished to satisfy the need of gaining wealth.
Tourism then, from an act of need, transformed to a luxury item, which could be used by few who had money and wealth. But tourism now has become a necessity for many to gain vigour from the boredom and monotony of life. Tourism has transformed to an economic product to crystallize the dreams of the people.
Tourism has become a fantasy and passion to suit the diverse life-styles of the people. In this regard it has been appropriately observed, “Travel and tourism has grown from a minor fiscal nuisance and an activity limited to the privileged rich, including traders, onto its present day industry having major economic and social significance.”
Now tourism has become an organised sector with the participation of many national and international organisations. The World Tourism Conference, held at Manila, Philippines, from 27th September to 10th October 1980, stated as “Any long-term analysis of mankind’s social, cultural and international tourist and recreational activities. These activities now form an integral part of the life of modern national and international societies.
Bearing in mind the acknowledged values of tourism which are inseparable from it, the authorities will have to give increased attention to the development of national and international tourist and recreational activity, based on a lot ever-wider participation of peoples on holidays and travel as well as the movement of persons for numerous other purposes, with a view to ensuring the orderly growth of tourism in a manner consistent with the other basic needs of society.”
On the basis of the analysis of stages of evolution of tourism, a ladder of tourism motivation can be proposed. Tourism transformed through various stages of development and is a passion of modern era.
International Tourism in India – Concept and Definitions of Tourism
Tourism is basically, movement of people from one destination to another. The journey is the dynamic element and rest is static the element of tourism. Movement and stay are temporary in nature not associated with any paid work or employment.
Tourism is a new field of study and its understanding involves many definitions which have to be analysed systematically. In this regard it has been observed, “Tourism as an area of study has towards the end of the twentieth century, a valid claim to be an emerging area of knowledge. There has, however, yet to be much attention devoted to an analysis of the knowledge base of tourism.”
Many authors, professionals and practitioners have tried to explain the critical aspects of tourism in their own way. According to Philip Pearce, “in the language of contemporary higher education research, tourism is a soft unrestricted, applied, pre-paradigmatic, rural and content based specification with a concrete reflective, learning style.”
Hermann. V. Schullard, an Austrian economist in the year 1910 gave one of the earliest definitions of tourism. He defined it as, “The sum total of the operators, mainly of an economic nature, which directly related to the entry, stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a certain country, only or region.”
In 1981, the Academic International du tourism was founded in Monte Carlo, which awarded the first prize in 1952, to R de Meyer, a Belgium for his definition “A collectivities term for human movement and its attendant activities caused by the exteriorization and fulfillment of the desire to escape that is more or less patent in everybody.”
Pray Edmund explained tourism as, “The entire range of its organs and its functioning not only from the viewpoint of those who travel but mainly from the viewpoint of the money which the wanderer carries with him and those who in the country where he moves about with a well filled purse benefit directly or indirectly from the expenses he incurs to satisfy his needs for instructions or pleasure.”
Dr. Zwadin believed tourism as a social movement and defined it as, “It is a social movement with a view to rest, diversion and satisfaction of cultural needs.”
Dr. Jafar Jafri, leading U.S. Tourism educator, defined it as, “Tourism is the study of man away from his usual habitat of the industry which responds to his needs and of the impacts that both he and the industry have on the host country’s cultural, economic and physical environments.”
The tourism demand is generated by tourists who have time and money and these potential tourists want to buy pleasure for money. They basically demand recreational facilities, culture and a beautiful climatic scenery. They also want good hotel accommodation and related facilities like food, beverages, good living etc. The destination is trying to fulfill the demands by the supply of facilities through the middleman to make the job easy.
The middlemen are basically the tour operators who advertise and promote the tourism to a particular destination and try to organise tours through proper channels by bookings and make their transportation easy. The national planning organisations try to facilitate tourism through legal aspects and proper communication channels.
The tourist industry basically consists of the primary trades and secondary trades. There are basically four trades which are directly surviving on the tourism industry and they are the hotel industry, catering industry, travel agency and the transport industry consisting of the road, rail, sea, air, and the river.
The secondary trades consists of the banks and the financial institutions, hair dressers, laundries and retail shops catering to the needs of tourists such as souvenir, antiques and gifts. The secondary trades also consist of suppliers of goods and services for hoteliers, caterers and transport undertakings.
The supply system consists of the public utilities, building forms, insurance companies and others. The entertainments are basically through the cinema theaters, special festivals and organized sports.
The tourism support services are provided by the private sector, public sector and the other producers involved in the production of tourism services.
The private sector services are guiding services, travel insurance and finance services. The travel trade press, market support services, guide and time table publications, the private education and training establishments and the private ports services.
The public support services consist of the national, regional and state tourism organisations, the resort publicity offices, the public educations and training establishments. The institutes and colleges, universities, research centres related to tourism. The public port services, visa and passport offices are also related to public sector.
The producers of man-made attractions such as man-made houses, ancient monuments, activity centres, theme parks, catering facilities. All these support services are used by tour operators and brokers, travel agents to provide the ultimate final tourist product to the consumer.
Wehab (1995) in his conceptual definition explains tourism. According to him, “tourism anatomy of the tourist phenomenon would be basically composed of three elements namely man, space and time.”
Definitions of Tourists:
The committee of statistical experts of the League of Nations in 1937 first defined “foreign tourist.” According to its viewpoint, the foreign tourist is, “any person visiting a country, other than that in which he actually resides, for a period of at least twenty-four hours, persons staying for less than twenty-four hours were to be treated as excursionists.”
Student and young person’s attending schools or universities and people with or without work permits arriving to take up occupations or any business activities in country were also not counted as tourists. The purpose of travel are varied ranging from holiday, (mass, popular, individual) cultural, educational, sports, recreation, visiting friends or relatives or attending business conferences and inventions.
The travellers may be classified as tourists and excursionists. The tourists are basically non-residents who are not living in this country and have come temporarily. These include the national residents abroad and the other non-resident crew members. Excursionists are day-visitors who do not stay for a whole night in any country. The cruise-passengers and the crews are also included in the category of excursionists.
The following type of passengers are not included in classification of tourist as members of armed forces, refugees and nomads, transit passengers, diplomats and consular staff, border workers, immigrants (temporary or permanent).
According to Murray in the Dictionnaire Universal, “the term tourist dates back to the year 1976, it describes a tourist as a person who makes journey for the fun of travelling to tell others that he has travelled.”
According to Lickorish “all persons staying for more than 12 month and less than 24 hours should be excluded from the category of tourists.” He has further suggested that for the latter we should use the word “excursionists” and ‘tourist visitors.’
He writes that “the excursionists should in principle be interpreted to mean any person travelling for pleasure for a period of less than 24 hours in a country other than in which he resides and not undertaking any gainful occupation in that country. Transit visitors should in principle be interpreted to any person travelling in a country during a period of less than 24 hours provided that any stops made are of short duration and for other than tourists purposes.”
In words of Jose Ignacio de Arriliga, “Tourism in its first period was considered as a sport or rather as a synthesis of automobiles, touring, cycling, camping, excursions and yachting.”
The World Tourism Organisation has also undertaken an exercise to define the term tourist. According to it, “Tourist is a temporary visitor staying for at least twenty-four hours in a country visited when the purpose of journey can be classified under one of the heading- (1) Leisure- recreation, holiday, health, study, religion and sports. (2) Business- family, mission meeting, travellers staying less than 24 hours according to WTO are excursionists.”
The United Nations accepted the above definition of tourists provided by IUOTO in their conference on International Travel and Tourism in 1963. The current definition adds on array of travellers to those travelling for fun, i.e. persons travelling for business, family mission or meeting purposes.
According to R. N. Kaul, “The word tourist is comparatively of recent origin. Once even invader was referred to as tourist in the hope that one day he would depart. The earliest reference appears in the Anecdotes of English language by Pegge as “a traveller is nowadays called a tourist.”
In France, Littre defined tourist as, “one who undertook the journey out of curiosity or to kill time.”
International Tourism:
International Tourism is defined as the phenomenon comprising the incoming and out coming tourism.
1. In-Coming Tourism:
The World Tourism Organisation has referred to in-coming tourism as the one involving residents of a country visiting other countries than their own country. In this category are included the tourist received by certain country from other countries, the latter being the origin country of the tourist.
2. Outgoing or Outbound Tourism:
The World Tourism Organisation has referred to outgoing tourism as outbound tourism and defined it as the one involving residents of a country visiting other countries. There are many persons of a country who go aboard. Outgoing tourism comprises those tourists normally residing in a country and preferring to travel abroad.
International Tourism in India – Impacts of Tourism in India
1. Economic Impacts:
The concept of economic impact can be understood by analysing the details of multiplier effect. Brain Archer and John Fletcher define multiplier effect as- “The unbroken series of conversion of visitor’s money constitutes the ‘multiplier effect.’ The greater, the number of hands through which money passes, the greater the beneficial effect on the gross national product and national accounts.”
The tourist brings a fixed amount and spends his money on accommodation, food and beverage, sight-seeing, transport and miscellaneous activities. This income to the tourism sector spreads to the other sections of the society in the form of taxes, spending on raw material, import or some items and some part of income is saved.
The multiplier effect is larger when the transaction or circulation of money in the economy is more. The effect is large for developed economies their marginal propensity to import is low as against the high marginal propensity to consume.
i. Tourism and the Economic Development:
The WTO has attempted to project economic contribution by tourism. According to this projection, “Tourism incidentally acts as a driving force for overall global development. Its growth has overtaken that of international trade which, in turn, progresses faster than the creation of wealth. It has proved resilient in the face of major world upsets such as oil crisis and gulf war. In 1991 there were 450 million international tourist arrivals world-wide generating foreign currency of 260,000 million dollar.”
ii. Tourism and the Total National Income:
When any foreign tourist spends money in the destination, the income of concerned destination increases. This is because when a tourist comes to a destination he increases the demand for consumption items including the transportation and accommodation sectors.
This increased demand forces investment in various sectors by the public and private investors. This, in turn, strengthens the infrastructure and leads to urbanisation. So this double growth trend induces the cumulative growth effect. The national income is the total of all the personal and corporate income.
Income from Tourism:
Total income from tourism is the product of the number of tourists per day, average length of stay (in days) per tourist and average expenditure per tourist per day.
Total Income = N x L x C.
Where,
N = Number of Tourists per day.
L = Average length of stay (in days) per tourist.
C = Average expenditure per tourist per day.
iii. Tourism and Redistribution of National Income:
The propensity of people to save money in the form of gold, silver and property has diluted and the growth of tourism has increased the propensity to spend money. This money circulates in the economy giving a Philip to all the business sectors so in this way the rate of the economic growth becomes dynamic.
iv. Tourism and International Trade:
“It will not be an exaggeration to claim that the economic impacts of tourism have been such extensive that measure by any yardstick the tourism today has equally emerged as world’s biggest industry and one of the joint with a positive North- South cash flow, the tourism has been termed as a ‘glamour girl’ among all other sectors of the economy.”
Tourism is basically the export industry involving the quality of transport, banking, insurance, entertainment services etc. So tourism is a sort of product that can be exchanged and marketed. Tourism product has emerged as set of benefits that earn a foreign exchange and income in the international market.
v. Tourism and Employment:
Tourism is a labour-oriented industry and has enormous employment potential. According to an expert opinion, “Tourism as a source of employment as a particularly important for areas with limited alternative sources of employment as is often the task in non-industrial areas deficient in natural resources of employment resources other than scenic attraction and climate.”
Employment has been the greatest advantage generated by tourism, direct employment by tourism industry is generated by hotel and motel industry, catering industry, transport industry, travel agency etc. The transport industry is vast covering the road, sea air and river routes.
The indirect employment is generated by the supporting industries in the tourism sector. These are the retail shops like the souvenirs, antiques and gifts. The employment potential generated by the banks and financial institutions, hair dressers, tailors, laundries etc. are also playing an important role in generating the employment opportunities.
“The total employment – direct and indirect, generated due to foreign tourism can be estimated by applying the percentage contribution of foreign tourism to national income or total employment in the economy. It is assumed that tourism income multiplier effects are equivalent to tourism employment multiplier effects. If we know the labour intensity of the economy measured in average terms as the ratio of employment to value added on national income then we may assume the average labour intensity indicating the extra jobs that be created in the period per unit of value added or additional national product, thus the principal of overall employment income ratio is expected to provide the contribution of tourism to employment generated as we do not have adequate required detailed data on income and employment to tourism sector for estimation and use of production functions of tourism activities”
Tourism and employment are intricately related and directly proportional to each other. Increase in tourism activity will cause an increase in the employment potential of that place.
According to an observation, “tourism employment generated in the economy will be related to the income created in the first and subsequent rounds of spending of the tourist rupee on consumer goods industries. There is a general accepted notion that salaries and wages generated by tourist expenditure usually amount to 50 per cent of that expenditure.”
According to another professional observation about employment generation in Kenya,” …..one job will be directly created for every six new hotel beds, and many more indirectly. This is particularly important fact for some of the less favoured parts of the country, notably the South, where employment opportunities are severally limited. Thus tourism can be an essential feature of the regional economic development at least in respect of creating work . . . ,”
The NCAER study has also found, “To estimate the direct contribution of foreign tourism to employment generated by the initial dose of tourist spending, it is not possible to estimate and use a similar norm as there is a paucity of comprehensive data or breakup of tourism expenses of employment and per capita earnings in the tourism activities of India’s economy.”
vi. Tourism and Tax Revenue:
It has been assessed, “The main source of revenue to the state from the tourist industry as a whole is through taxation – customs and excise duties on food and service bought or used by tourists. The various types of taxes are received by the central, state and local government.”
The various taxes that the tourists pays is the airport tax, tax on wine, liquor, building of roads and service industry.
vii. Tourism and Foreign Exchange Earnings:
Tourism has the ability to earn foreign exchange and about it has been appropriately observed, “Tourism is the only export trade that earns large foreign exchange without depleting national resources and without actually exporting any material goods.”
The foreign exchange earned by tourism has direct effect on the gross domestic product of the country through the multiplier effect. Foreign exchange is in demand by all the countries to maintain the balance of payments of their economies. Many countries in order to maintain higher balance of payments have liberalised their rules and regulations to allow the free flow of tourist traffic.
viii. Tourism’s Effect on Various Industries:
When a tourist spends money, it increases the income of industries like hotels, transport, travel agents and tour operators. These industries are direct or primary industries as they directly depend on tourism. They flourish when the tourism activity is more. These industries in order to survive buy services and raw material from other supporting or secondary industries.
“The increased familiarity of foreigners with the resources and skills and economic conditions of the host may encourage foreign investment in the country in order that some hidden unexploited resources of skill be developed for exports market. The full contribution and the total effect of tourism in the economic, the input-output analysis is the best one. This approach was developed and applied to tourism in the U.K. and Ireland by G. Richards of the University of Survey.”
ix. Tourism and Foreign Investment:
Tourism increases the consumption level of any destination. Now it becomes necessary to develop the infrastructure and as this industry generates long-term benefits, it is advised to import capital from outside because this is the cost for the development of employment potential and income.
x. Tourism and the Investment of Surplus Money:
Surplus money of people is diverted into investment when this is productive and generates benefits for longer period. The investment may be of three types, it is immediate investment when a restaurant opens, it is medium term, when a hotel is established, it is long-term when there is a development of forest zone.
xi. Tourism Receipts:
The tourism receipts depend on the following factors:
1. Number of foreign tourist arrival.
2. Purpose of visit.
3. Per tourist expenditure on different tourism activities.
4. Average length of stay.
5. Different purpose of visit.
According to NCAER, ” For each tourism activity and purpose of visit, gross receipts from tourists are computed by equating the product of the number of tourists multiplied by their average duration of stay and per tourist daily expenditure.”
Cost-Benefit Ratio:
This ratio is obtained by dividing the benefits by cost. The evaluation of various alternatives is done on the basis of cost-benefit ratio and the alternative with the highest ratio is chosen.
The high cost benefit ratio is directly correlated with high tourist spending capacity.
Benefits from Tourism:
The economic value of tourism is measured in:
1. Contribution to national income.
2. Earning of foreign exchange.
3. Contribution of state revenue.
4. Creation of employment.
The main costs of tourism:
1. Cost of capital investment in hotels.
2. Cost of land and building.
3. State capital expenditure on infrastructure.
4. Break-up current operating cost.
5. Import cost of goods and services used by visitors.
Cost-Benefit Ratio and Tourism:
Reflection Ratio:
The ratio of additional exports to additional imports is known as the reflection ratio. Reflection ratio is the amount of exports sold to another country devised by the amount; our citizens have spent on tourism in that country.
According to an observation, “Assuming fixed rates of exchange and no induced price changes, the incremental purchase of foreign goods or services will result in a net drain in the foreign currency reserve of the buying country. The proportional drain will result upon the marginal propensities of the selling nations, and upon the marginal propensities of these third nations to spend on domestic products, to import directly from the buying nations to spend and so on. The proportionate drain resulting from an increase in imports will be unity minus the ratio of incremental exports guaranteed per unit of imports. The rates of additional imports are called the reflection ratio. The reflection ratio is expressed in terms of incremental imports from a single nation or of incremental imports of a single good or service in the latter case. The ratio is the average reflection ratio for ail supplying nations weighted by the distribution of the incremental imports among these nations.”
xii. Tourism and the Balance of Payments:
BOP shows the relationships between the counter payments and receipts from abroad-
BOP = Receipts – Expenditure
The earnings from tourism depend on following three factors:
(a) The number of tourists arrivals,
(b) Their average length of stay, and
(c) The price level at a particular time.
Sometimes the estimates are not correct due to the following factors:
(a) A currency devaluation,
(b) Sudden influx of border travellers, and
(c) Measurement escapes of proportion of tourist expenditure.
Net BOP = E – (H/A+R+O+C)
where,
BOP = Balance of Payments
E = Total expenditure by international tourists.
H = Foreign currency cost of hotel construction.
A = No. of years in the hotel is amortized.
R = Annual remittance of interest and profits on foreign capital need for hotel construction
O = Annual costs of overseas operations that are part of tourism development programme.
C = Imported items needed by tourists.
2. Social and Cultural Impacts of Tourism:
International tourism is the most ancient force entering the lives of the people and crossing the frontier of the country. According to the observation by an professional expert “with respect to international relations and search for peace based on justice and respect of the individual and national aspirations, tourism stands a positive and an ever present factor in promoting mutual knowledge and understanding as a basic force for reaching a greater level of respect and confidence among people of the world.”
International tourism has become a word of praise by all governments and is an element of survival and growth of all countries. The 21st United Nations General Assembly designated 1967 as the ‘International Tourist Year.’ It set the seal on importance of tourism when it passed the resolutions unanimously as, “Tourism is a basic and most desirable human activity deserving the praise and encouragement of all people and all governments.”
Tourism is the by-product of industrialisation which has promoted unity in the world as it is need of the moment. Another observation explains that “International Tourism contributes to an open world and free movement of culture and commerce for the benefit of all mankind. It is the most powerful force in promoting unity in the world.”
Tourism is a force to melt the bitterness among nations and develop prosperity and strength based on non-violence. Tourism is an instrument for international relations that can help, develop solidarity among countries and world-wide economic property.
i. Educational Value of Tourism:
International tourism has opened the floodgates and knowledge and is flourishing form one country to another with elements of love, understanding and goodwill entangled to it. An expert says “When the tourists come in contact with the place he visits and its population, a social background affects the social structure and mode of life of his destination he is in turn affected by it.”
Savignac E, (Secretary General of WTO) in his inaugural Address to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janerio, 4th June, 1992, observed, “sometimes tourists carries back home new habits and ways of life.”
ii. Tourism – A Force of Social Relationship:
One of the prominent social reformers states, “The world is becoming a global village in which people from continents are made to jail like next door neighbours. In facilitating more authentic social relationships between individuals, tourism can help overcome many real prejudices and foster new bonds of fraternity. In this sense tourism has become in real force for peace.”
iii. Tourism and the Regional Growth:
Tourism, when progresses develop an infrastructure which is base for regional growth. One observation explains, “The social benefits of tourism centre around the money brought into under-developed areas by the industry. The provision of infrastructure, the construction of roads and the system of electricity supply, water supply and sewage disposal, hospitals, schools and shops becomes necessary as area is developed for strangers.”
Tourism as a force has made the world a global village with new realties and horizons. Tourism will be more for conservation, and preservation of environment. There will be demographic shifts in the life-cycle as medicines and health consciousness have increased. There have been shifts in the market economy with cost under control so tourism is becoming accessible to a large population.
Cultural diversity in homogeneous world has caused attractions and acceptance among people all over the world.
Technology will become an effective component of improvement and development in the coming decade. The north- south gap is reducing and both are coming at par of friendship and goodwill for each other. The value system of travel is changing and more emphasis is on human relationship which leads to more intense relations. These relationships have quest for stability and security.
International Tourism in India – Models of Tourism in India:
“The increasing complexity of tourism and better educated and more invalid travellers has caused an awakening to the need for systematic research, information systems and education in the field of Tourism.”
More models and concepts are needed to put light on the subject as much information is not available in the published texts. An effort has been made to elaborate the concept into details to give a vivid picture of the subject.
1. Gunn’s Model of Tourism:
The fine travel components that Gunn identities include- The tourist transportation, the attractions that draw the tourist, the services / facilities needed by traveller and the information / direction needed to facilitate travel.
“These are fundamental components as Gunn notes “In addition to the function within each component, there are strong interdependencies between components … the cross interdependence are very strong forming an extremely sensitive and dynamic ehole . . . .”
2. Mill’s and Morrison Models:
The Mill and Morrison’s system of tourism explains the concept of travel purchase, demand and marketing of the destination. When tourist leaves his place of origin, he goes out to purchase a product like travel which is intangible but has intrinsic values such as satisfaction and value that it offers for the money paid. The shape to the travel demand is given by the services which the tourist asks for when he is out of his residence.
The seller of the travel product in the travel agencies and tour operators and destination itself has taken great care in order to offer the best attractions of the product. The marketing of the product consists of giving right information to the customers about the facilities they can provide and the attractions they can offer. They identified the tourism system as a satisfier of needs and wants.
The four component system they present (market, travel, destination, marketing) is, market driven and rooted in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954).”
3. Matheison and Wall’s Model:
The another model that explains the tourism concept clearly is the Mathieson and Wall model. The tourism demand originates from the tourist who has the potential economic or financial power to travel. The tourism product has three elements in the Dynamic elements, static elements and the consequential elements.
The dynamic elements consist of the changing forms of tourism and the attitudes related to the product. The state element consists of the characteristics of stay, the type of activity undertaken by the tourist.
The consequential elements consist of the level of usage, level of satisfaction and the socioeconomic characteristics or impacts generated. The tourist destination which is a part of tourist product consists of the destination. The pressure generated by level of usage leads to more tourism development of the place. The carrying capacity depends on the social structure and the organisation of the destination including the size, weather conditions and the facilities available at a place.
The impacts of tourism on the tourist and the host can be economic, physical and the social. The impacts can be both negative and positive. The negative impacts can be controlled by finance, management strategies, policy, information carrying capacity guidelines, engineering etc.
The present conceptual framework of tourism is comprised of three basic elements:
(i) A dynamic element which involves travel to be a selected destination.
(ii) A static elements which involves the stay in the destination.
(iii) A consequential elements which focuses on economic, physical and social subsystems with which the tourist directly or indirectly in contact.
4. Krippendoff’s Model:
The Krippendoff’s Model of life in the industrial society explains effect of various factors on man’s life. Man in order to earn his living and for his survival has to work. Living without work is impossible, this continuous work leads to boredom, leisure is necessary for change.
The motives that influence through travel the values of the society like the people and having the potential to travel and want to go out the state policies like the centralist and federal and the economic structure of centralised and decentralised economic structures affect the travel motives. The limit and infinite availability of resources in the environment affect the travel motives of man in the process of choice of destination.
The tourism phenomenon is an extraordinary occurrence which has historically developed from an elitist human activity to a mass culture lifestyle opportunity characterised by constant change of movement – related activity holding great promise for human growth and development in contemporary society.
5. Peter’s Model:
“Lieper (1981), presents a dynamic system that is both practical and comprehensive. The model identifies various environments- physical, technological, social, cultural, economic and political. He examines their interactions on tourist generating regions and tourists destinations regions.”
According to Leiper (1979) “Tourism is an open system of five elements interacting with the broader environments, the element of tourists the geographical elements generating region. Transits route and destination region, and an economic element – the tourist industry.”
According to a professional observation-“Tourism is a study of man away from his usual habitat of the industry which responds to his needs, and of the impacts that both he and the industry have on the host socio-cultural, economic and physical environments.”
6. Peter Murphy’s Model:
Peter Murphy (1955) provides another multi-component theoretical framework.
Murphy identifies three major components that provide an over-arching frame of reference:
(i) Demand Factors:
Including tourist motivations, perceptions and expectation. These demand factors are based on the past experiences and preferences of the user of these tourism services.
(ii) Supply Factors:
Which include the resources of tourism services, such as experience, capital resources. These supply factors based on a combination of such infrastructure considerations as hospitality and facilities mixes attractions to form tourism product.
(iii) The Market Place:
Which balances the tourist image on the supply side with various market place intermediaries that comprise the tourism delivery and distribution system.
“Murphy Model is particularly useful for examination at the community, college level because community college based tourism programmes lend to be this theoretical and more skewed toward broad based technology.”
7. Hudman’s & Hawkins Model (1988):
Hudman & Hawkins Model (1988) further develop the conceptual framework by identifying the following relationships in their framework for contemporary tourism:
a. Dynamic Element – The Tourism Phenomenon
b. Service Element – The Tourism System
c. Functional Element – Tourism Management
d. Consequential Element – Tourism Impacts
International Tourism in India – Trends of Tourism in India
All over the globe, the business environment has undergone vital change during last few decades. In the present context, it can be marked as an era of “Competition and Strategies.” Today, the fittest survive and others go out of market. This means that those who are enterprising in the economic ventures will have to acquire excellence in profession. This feature is not only valid at the micro level but also at the macro level.
This also signifies that even at the national level the states will have to design their strategies on the basis of thorough exercises. There is a need for organised attempts to study the previous global as well as national trends. These trends along with appropriate knowledge of local environment will assure for the drafting of a useful course of actions for promoting better social system. It will also properly push particular sectors of economy toward desired advancement.
It will not be an exaggeration to claim that today international tourism has acquired very prominent status in the global socio-economic system. Along with other developing countries, India too is making all efforts to promote international tourism in a big way and therefore referred phenomenon is equally valid for drafting a future strategy for promoting international tourism in India. The task of designing an appropriate strategy requires an organised attempt to study the previous trends.
In other words the previous trends may be considered as the backbone for drafting a strategy for the future. The quantitative analysis of data of various years will help in opening a window to peep in the future. The evaluation of the past experience will help the strategists to pick up the best possible alternative for the future.
The present study is concerned with suggesting an appropriate strategy for promoting international tourism in India. Therefore, the assessment of the trends related to international tourism assumes a very important status. In this regard, it is an established fact that during last few decades the tourism industry has entered into the era of cutthroat competition.
Several developing and under-developed countries have taken up the task of promoting their respective tourism industry in a big way in an organised manner. The past experience significantly explains that many less developed countries have emerged as the keen competition for the developed countries in the fields related to tourism.
The recent global trends reveal that the task of developing and managing business related to tourism has become very difficult in the present context. The tourist receiving countries have developed a strong desire to make maximum earning from arriving tourists. But the tourists have become more demanding and require satisfactory mark of services offered by the hosts.
To effectively meet this challenging situation, the enterprises organising and offering tourism related services require effective support at micro-level from the managers of socioeconomic affairs at the macro-level. In other words, the national policy should be supportive for the proper growth of enterprises offering services to be visiting tourists. This will facilitate the concerned countries to share bigger size of cake of the tourist market on the international horizon.
Thus, it will not be an exaggeration to claim that appropriate national policy on tourism development is the key to success. The appropriate drafting of national policy requires useful analysis of previous trends. The study of trends will help in building strategy for proper and desired growth of tourism industry. It will also ensure better share to the concerned nation in the international tourist arrivals and receipts.
The vital important of previous trends have encouraged researchers to involve in this exercise. It is firmly believed that the quantitative and qualitative trends will help the researcher to propose a useful Indian strategy for promoting international tourism. The revolution of multimedia and information system has further increased the utility of previous trends for drafting future strategy. The complicated procedures have become “commercialised” as they are the raw material to manufacture progress and productivity.
The trend analysis basically requires relevant and dependable source of information. The World Tourism Organisation has undertaken the responsibility for generating required tourism related information on the global level. Keeping this fact in view, the researcher has also preferred to analyse trends on the basis of information supplied by the World Tourism Organisation.
An attempt was made to highlight important and major trends. For this purpose, the information generated by the World Tourism Organisation about current trends and its forecast for 2000 have been taken into consideration.
Other Important Trends Related to South Asia:
1. The estimates of the World Tourism Organisation indicate that there will be a total arrival of 6 million international tourists in 2000 and 10 million in 2010.
2 The share of South Asia in international tourist arrivals world-wide will show a moderate rise from 0.7 per cent in 1990 to 0.9 per cent in 2000 and 1.1 per cent in 2010.
3. International tourism in this region will continue to be dominated by the tourist flows from outside the region. Intraregional arrivals are forecasted to grow at the same rate as the inter-regional arrivals during the 1990s and at a rate above that for long haul arrivals during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The share of intraregional arrivals will increase from 29.6 per cent in 1990 to 32 per cent in 2010.
Key Factors for Promoting Tourism in South Asia:
The key factors which will lead the South Asian region in achieving the above average growth rate both in the outbound and inbound traffic of international tourists are considered to be the following:
1. Worldwide economic recovery will generate more movement of international tourists.
2. Scale and variety tourism development in the South Asian region.
3. Growing interest of international tourists in the peoples, culture and destinations of South Asian countries.
4. Better financial ability of large number of people will motivate them to travel overseas, significantly to the destinations in South Asian region.
5. Stung ethnic ties between the people of the countries of this region.
6. Identification of trade between the Asian countries.
7. Easement of foreign currency and regulation in the outbound travel for the Indians.
8. Availability of better and improved computer technology for advance reservation in the countries of South Asian region.
International Tourism in India – Opportunities and Constraints for Tourism in Different Regions
I. East Asia Pacific Region:
According to World Tourism Organisation forecasts “International tourist arrivals are expected to grow at the rate of 6.8 per cent per annum in East Asia / Pacific region between 1990 and 2000, and at the rate of 6.0 per cent per annum between 2000 and 2010. The level of arrivals will reach 101 million in 2000 and 190 million in 2010 in this region.”
The prominent opportunities for growth in this region include the following:
1. Large scale and variety of tourism development.
2. People have started taking more interest in the Asia countries.
3. The financial ability of the people has increased.
4. There is intensification of trade between the Asian countries.
5. The East Asian countries have become aware of the promotional programmes and the impact of computer technology on trade and tourism.
The major constraints for the growth of tourism in this include the following:
1. Inadequate infrastructure development for proper growth of international tourism.
2. High rate of inflation.
3. Transport infrastructure limitations.
II. Europe:
International tourist arrivals are expected to grow at the average annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent per annum between 1990 and 2000, and at average annual growth rate 2.5 percent per annum between 2000 and 2010, significantly lower than the global average annual growth rate. The level of arrivals will reach 372 million in 2000 and 476 million in 2010.
The prominent opportunities for the growth of international tourism in Europe include the following:
1. Economic expansion on the global level.
2. Continued interest in the people and culture of different regions of the world.
3. Emergence of European led global distribution systems.
4. Increased emphasis on the promotional activities.
5. Liberalisation of airline service.
The major constraints for the growth of international tourism in Europe include the following:
1. Overdevelopment has led to increased air traffic giving problems of bottlenecks.
2. There are problems associated with war in former Yugoslavia.
3. There is risk of conflict between the developers and the local communities.
III. Middle East:
According to World Tourism Organisation international tourist arrivals are forecasted to grow at an annual growth rate of 4 per cent per annum between 1990 and 2000, and by 5 per cent per annum between 2000 and 2010. Total arrivals will touch 11 million mark in 2000 and 18 million in 2010.
The prominent opportunities for the growth of international tourism in this region include the following:
1. People’s growing interest in the culture and history of Middle East.
2. Ethnic ties have become strong.
3. Middle East countries have done the expansion of airline service connections to the key tourist generating markets.
4. The economic policies have become conducive for the growth of trade and progress.
The major constraints for the growth of International Tourism in this region include the following:
1. Consumers fear about the safety of tourist travel in the countries in this region.
2. There are inadequate education and training programmes.
3. There is risk of conflict between the tourism developers and the local community.
IV. America:
According to World Tourism Organisation “International tourist arrivals are forecasted to grow at an average annual rate of 4.6 per cent per annum between 1990 and 2000, and by 3.5 per cent per annum between 2000 and 2010. The level of arrivals will touch the mark of 147 million in 2000 and 207 million in 2010.”
The prominent opportunities for the growth of international tourism include the following:
1. The sudden economic revival of the world.
2. Liberalisation and privatisation policies which have increased the trade relations between the American countries.
3. There is growing sophistication in the American technology.
4. The ethnicities between Asia and North America have increased the inflow of tourists.
The major constraints for the growth of international tourism in this region include the following:
1. There in overdevelopment in many parts of this continent.
2. Increased airline traffic.
3. Prevailing high rate of inflation.
V. Africa:
According to World Tourism Organisation forecasts “International Tourist arrivals are forecasted to grow at an average annual rate of 5 per cent per annum between 1990 and 2000, and by 4 per cent per annum between 2000 and 2010. The level of arrivals will touch the mark of 24 million in 2000 and 36 million in 2010.”
The prominent opportunities for the growth of International tourism in this region include the following:
1. There is worldwide economic recovery with massive potential for tourism.
2. People have started taking interest in this region because of the ethnic ties between the European and the African destinations.
3. There is expansion in the international airline services connections.
4. There is impact of computer technology on the distribution system.
The major constraints for the growth of international tourism in this region include the following:
1. There is inadequate infrastructure.
2. High rates of inflation are prevailing in this region.
3. There is less safety and security available in this region.
International Tourism in India – Tourism and the Future
There are even authors who have forecasted a bright future of tourism. It has been anticipated that this activity is growth-oriented and has a promising horizon ahead.
One thing can be safely said of tourism in the future:
It will increase nothing but a global war can present that current forecasts suggest a 5 per cent yearly growth in international tourist throughout the 1990s and that means a lot of tourists expenditure is likely real terms.
“The Deregulated environment in which this growth in tourism is taking place impacts on the interaction of all industry components. The technology and information systems of this huge, newly enervated, existing global industry encompasses even more data that periodically grows more difficult to assess and evaluate. Although technological change, economic propensity and other conditions play an important role, social change in the guise of changing values and mass education has judged the tourist’s exposure growth”.
According to a professional observation, “Tourism is a historically growth sector. If we look at the way in which tourism has and is developing in most of the major generating countries of the world, we see that people are moving away from the old idea of tourism as simply as output of economic wealth. It still is, but evidence suggests that more and more people are seeing the ability to take holidays and travel international as a part of a life-style. Research indicates that people will protect holiday expenditure even in deteriorating economic elements.”
Tourism is growing and the earnings from it are increasing, leaving the petrol industry which was the governing industry for earning wealth. Now the era belongs to tourism.
“As a global community we are living through widespread changes whose scope and significance are lately perceptible at this point of time. Yet we know that what has come to be known as the ‘New world order’ of the post-world war era is evolving in some very fundamental ways as we rush towards the magical year 2000 and the third millennium of western history.”
The new world order is giving birth to a trendy life-style associated with funding something special and new. The status values have changed. Tourism is new attitude associated with the economic viability of any industrial and the country.
“Although tourism will double, growth rates will be lower. It is not going to be like the seventies when everyone was a wander. Now days there’s much more competition and if you win it because you get market share from your competitors. It you want to be a winner tomorrow you have to be more professional more aggressive and closer to the market. Mr. Bali tells his guidance on the general assembly in Bali.”