Multicultural India draws more foreign tourists

Multicultural India is planning to pitch faith tourism by developing more religious tourist circuits to attract foreign footfall and encourage greater domestic travelling that has seen double digit growth in recent years benefiting the local economy.

Faith tourism is “recession proof” and, hence the government is making efforts to promote pilgrimage tourism from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to Buddhist centres and opening a Jewish centre in Kochi.

“We have to have a proactive approach for developing these centres,” said tourism secretary Parvez Dewan.

Other circuits could be the 22 Sufi centres and the British-era war cemeteries in the country.

There are also plans to connect pilgrimage centres in the north with those in the south.
The government has appointed a national level consultant to identify the spiritual tourism circuits.

Tourism minister K Cheeranjeevi told Parliament last month that while identifying and developing the circuits, efforts would be made to plug infrastructure gaps and provide necessary amenities to tourists.

“We should be sensitive to the needs of people who are visiting these centres. For instance, hotels set up in Jain religious centres should address the values and food habits of that people,” Deewan said at a round table on tourism here recently.

After the downturn following the world financial crisis and Mumbai terror attack, foreign tourist arrivals have been on the rise and the government wants to maintain the momentum by developing more sites and certain niche circuits.

According to the Planning Commission Working Group on Tourism, India is targeting one per cent of world tourist arrivals by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan (2017).

India’s share in international tourist arrivals in 2011 was 0.64 per cent.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the country has the highest growth potential over a 10-year period between 2009 and 2018.

India’s share in international tourist arrivals in 2011 was 0.64 per cent. According to WTTC, nearly 40 million Indians are employed in tourism and the country has the highest growth potential over a 10-year period between 2009 and 2018.