Tourism industry is booming

India needs further improvements in aviation and tourism infrastructure, if it wants to sustain the stellar growth in the country’s tourism industry in recent years, says a study by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).The study, Total Tourism India, points to the need for expanding airport capacity, further liberalise the airline policy, increase the hotel accomodation inventory with focus on mid-market and economy segments, reduce and simplify taxation, cut-out bureaucratic red tape, boost availability of skilled manpower and streamline visa processing.While complementing the low cost carriers for giving a fillip to domestic tourism in the country, the report points out that the LCC model in India remains vulnerable due to the costly operating environment, high airport charges and low level of internet penetration. The airport infrastructure too needs to be upgraded with more private sector participation.The study finds that number of domestic trips reached an all time high of 430 million in 2006, up 13% over the last one year, riding on the boom in low cost air travel.International outbound travel by Indians touched 8.3 million in 2006, as against 7.2million in 2005. Close to 3 million Indians went to Asia Pacific destinations, making India the fourth largest source market behind China, Japan and Korea. This is expected to touch 4.3 million by 2009, the study said. Foreign tourist arrivals into the country was pegged at around 4.2 million in 2006, as against 3.9 million in 2005.Though there has been rapid increase in airline seat capacity over the last one year, PATA report pointed out that the current policy of not allowing Indian carriers to operate internationally before five years of domestic operations is constraining the expansion of international air capacity operating in and out of the country.On the issue of expansion of hotel room inventory, the report said that the country needs to focus on developing broader range of three and four-star accomodation. According to WTTC Tourism Satellite Accounts, the country needs to identify an additional 2.7 million skilled tourism related staff to support the projected growth in the travel industry.The report forecasts that visitor exports - or amount of money spend by foreign travellers in India - is expected to come down from 3.3% of total tourism income in 2006 to 1.3% in 2016.
courtesy:economictimes
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