Mr Subhash Goyal's Poverty Eradication and Economic Development Through Tourism not only looks at the various problems that face the industry but also suggests an action plan for Indian tourism industry. The book was launched by Home Minister L K Advani in the Capital last week.

Mr Goyal started in the tourism industry in the early 1970s when he set up a travel centre known as Students Travel information Centre (STIC) for students visiting the country. STIC offered them various services as they made their journey across India. STIC has now grown into a countrywide network of over 32 offices with over 500 full-time employees. STIC is one of the largest wholesale travel organisations in India and South Asia.

Says Mr Goyal, "In the past six years as the president of The Indian Association of Tour Operators, and even before as a member of the tourism industry, I realised that tourism has an immense potential."Tourism, he says, is one of the largest employment generators in the world.

And since it is mostly a labour-intensive industry, its potential in this regard has to be exploited to the fullest. Promotion of tourism both in India and China, points out Mr Goyal, was started around the same time.

However, over the years, China seems to have developed a more successful tourism industry than India. "Last year, 50 million tourists visited China out of which only 34 million were foreign tourists. The rest were overseas Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Last year, India got a total of 2.5 million tourists. We have more attractions than China in terms of landscape-rivers, mountains, monuments and so on. India is the birthplace of four major religions. So why is it that we get only a pittance of tourists?" asks Mr Goyal. The answer, says Mr Goyal, lies in the inability "to put our act together" and tap that potential of tourism. The development of tourism, as Mr Goyal points out in his book, is the recipe for fast-track growth of the economy. He also puts forward a time-bound action plan of "10 Cs"-Commitment, coordination, communication, clearances, continuity, civil aviation, concessions, cleanliness, contingency plans and community involvement. According to him, if these 10 Cs can be implemented, thenthey would help to eradicate poverty with tourism acting as an economic multiplier in the economy.The main thrust as, he says in his book, should be on an open-sky policy.

"Instead of having only four to five international gateways into India, as is currently the case, India must allow international airlines into all states in the country by developing them as international gateways. That is, all the states should have international airports," he says. He quotes Bihar as an example. "There are major Buddhist sites in the state and around 26 million Buddhist tourists around the world who would like to go there," says Mr Goyal. "If the skies are opened up then automatically there would be jobs. Hotels would come up. And even if there is a 500-room hotel, each room creates a minimum employment for 3-5 people."

Poverty Eradication and Economic Development Through Tourism by Subhash Goyal; Goyal Publishers & Distributors Rs 595; Pp 229