When
pioneer carmaker Henry Ford's great-grandson
recently announced plans to set up a US$500
million ski resort in India, he joined the
scramble to cash in on India's booming tourism
industry.
The first phase of the project
in Himachal Pradesh will have a 250-room hotel,
ski-lift and other facilities up and running
within three years, entrepreneur Alfred Ford said.
When completed, the plan provides for 700
five-star hotel rooms, 300 villas, 150 condos,
shops, restaurants and spas, making the Himalayan
Ski Village the first of this size in India.
Skiing is just one of the new recreational
options opening up for tourists in India. Apart
from the usual Taj Mahal and Goa beach
attractions, other options such as adventure
tourism, eco-tourism
and
even medical tourism (tourists get medical
treatment as part of a vacation) are finding more
takers. Apart from Ford's ski resort, tourists can
find rock-climbing in Courtallam, eco-tourism in
Thenmalai and heli-skiing near Manali.
The
Tourism Ministry quotes sources such as
Chicago-based iExplore.com (affiliated with the
National Geographic and Forbes adventure travel
sites) that included India as fifth among its top
10 destinations for 2004. India rocketed up from
36th position in 2003.
The World Travel
& Tourism Council says India will emerge as
the second-fastest growing tourism economy
globally between 2005 and 2014, followed by China.
Successful promotions such as the Tourism
Ministry's hit "Incredible India" multimedia
campaign and the budget air travel boom are
reckoned to have contributed to the tourism gold
rush.
The Tourism Ministry, headed by
firebrand politician Renuka Chowdhury (who on
October 27 said she had persuaded the Dalai Lama
to act as India's tourism ambassador to promote
the country's vast Buddha-related circuit), is
eagerly pitching in a $48 million advertising
campaign for 2005-06. Its website includes a
20-page safety guideline for adventure sports
operations - from mountain biking and bungee
jumping to para-sailing. Yet given India's
diversity and culture, other ideas to exploit the
potential are still in short supply.
Numbers support investments such as
Ford's. Despite being visited by major disasters
such as the December 26 tsunami, India enjoyed a
record 3.37 million foreign tourist arrivals last
year and 367 million domestic travelers,
contributing to $4.8 billion in earnings, 4.47% of
gross domestic product. Leading industry
professionals reckon the numbers are only the tip
of the potential iceberg. Tourism had a 24% growth
in 2004, a leap from 14% growth a year earlier,
posting impressive gains despite a dip in tourist
arrivals in the rest of the world. Arrivals from
Europe and Asia Pacific headed the list.
The terrorism-troubled Jammu and Kashmir
in the Himalayas has also enjoyed a travel boom
since India and Pakistan brokered a shaky peace
two years ago. The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism
Ministry told the media that the earthquake that
rocked Pakistan five weeks ago, killing about
90,000, did not affect popular tourist spots.
A senior official said tourism arrivals
there increased by 90% in the past 24 months, with
400,000 domestic tourists this year, compared to
225,000 last year. The figure is expected to pass
half a million by March 2006, with winter tourists
coming from Southeast Asian countries such as
Singapore and Malaysia. The winter snow and a ride
on the famous houseboats in summer are big draws
for the area.
India's increased number of
wealthy is helping drive this tourism surge. A
National Council for Applied Economic Research
(NCAER) survey says the number of millionaires in
rural India is increasing. The number of Indian
households with an annual income equivalent to
$226,449 has grown by 26% since 1995-96 to almost
nearly 20,000 in 2001-02, the report says. By
2005-06, the number is expected to more than
double, and reach 140,000 by 2010.
"With
the economy growing at the pace it is, the
consumption story has been hitting the roof," said
the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a
Ministry of Commerce and Industry initiative to
promote the India brand. "Driven by a young
population with access to disposable incomes and
easy finance options, the consumer market has been
throwing up mind-boggling figures."
Tourism operators now sell heli-skiing
packages for the Himalayan regions of Gulmarg,
Hanuman Tibba, Rohtang Pass, Deo Tibba and
Chanderkhani Pass near Manali, where skiers are
flown by helicopter to pristine slopes on
snow-draped peaks 14,000 feet high.
Other
troubled areas such as northeast India are opening
to tourism, with state-owned Indian Airlines
offering holiday packages to the violence-torn
region. The Indian government has also budgeted
$33 million for improving air connectivity in this
mostly hilly and underdeveloped territory.
Eco-tourism, growing globally at 5%, is
ranked by the World Tourism Organization as the
fastest-growing segment in the global tourism
industry. The Washington-based International
Eco-tourism Society defines eco-tourism as
"responsible travel to natural areas that
conserves the environment and improves the
well-being of local people".
Thomas Cook,
offering 13 holiday packages to India costing from
$560 to $1560, sells an eco-tourism tour of tribes
in the eastern Indian state of Orissa starting at
$1,300. But surprisingly, India does not yet have
an eco-tourism society unlike other Asian
countries such as Thailand, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka.
Medical tourism is another sector
enjoying booming times, and it is expected to be
worth $2.3 billion by 2012, according to a
McKinsey consulting report. "We are getting people
in the thousands from various parts of the world
with most of them coming for bypass surgeries,
dental and orthopedic treatment, and even for
plastic surgeries," Health Minister Anbumani
Ramadoss told the media. The Indian government
will soon identify multi-specialty hospitals and
specialist doctors to serve the rush of overseas
patients, he said. This work is to be executed by
a new body called the Accreditation Foundation of
India.
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