Sensing an imperative need for ?responsible tourism? in the wake of the much condemned tribal safaris in the Andamans, the tourism ministry is coming out with guidelines to benchmark the business.
?We have just finished working on the guidelines and will be issuing them soon. After this, we will also be giving incentives to hotels and tour operators so they adhere to these guidelines,? said Anand Kumar, joint secretary, tourism ministry.
The draft guidelines lay out protocols that the hotels and travel agents would have to adhere to, like in case of local architectural designs they will have to keep the character of the destination intact. Other protocols are on energy and water conservation.
Protection of wildlife and not hurting the sentiments of local communities are major points of the draft. ?There are various other codes of conduct such as the PATA guidelines too for the tourism industry. Enforcement and implementation are important. Yes, the incentives will go a long way in promoting best tourism practices,? says Subhash Goyal, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO). Though he maintains that human safaris and some other kind of tourism, practices such as ?red-light tourism? and ?slum tourism? are not commonplace. ?Travel sector is a very unorganised one, so giving incentives will ensure standards are followed,? says Rajji Rai, advisory board member to TAAI and South Asia director for United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA).
The ministry has also set up promotional forums in various countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Brazil to promote inbound tourism. ?We want to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) to the country from 6.29 million in 2011 to 11.37 million by 2016. For this we are taking various steps, but it’s sustainable and responsible tourism that we are promoting,? Kumar added. Incredible India is looking at upping its share in the world tourism from 0.6% at present to 1% by 2016.