Padharo mhare desh – Come, visit my land

I just got back from Jodhpur, the blue city. I also visited Jaipur, Pushkar and Ajmer on this trip to Rajasthan. I have visited Rajasthan many times before, including Udaipur and Jaisalmer. The Rajasthani folk song ‘kesariya balam aavo ni; padharo mhare desh’ is the singer’s invitation to her beloved to visit her land, and the joy she would feel if he were to accept and come. The song describes the beauty of Rajasthan, with its dunes, camels, and colourful attire of the people. The song has been performed by many musicians over the years, including Mehdi Hassan, and has been featured in several Bollywood films as well. Today, the phrase ‘padharo mhare desh’ is a tourism slogan inviting visitors to the state.

Rajasthan is indeed a traveller’s paradise. With royal palaces to stay in, smaller havelis as options, a wide variety of local food served with warm hospitality, camel rides in the desert, temples and dargahs to offer prayers, stepwells, and more, Rajasthan has a lot to offer. Better still are the roads, the cleanliness, and the local markets. The state has got many things right to attract travellers from across the country and around the world. The one thing for the state to work on is to regularise the ‘tout’ economy that features the cab driver, the auto driver, the tourist guide, and even the man of God.

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India can borrow and extend the Rajasthan model to increase its revenues from tourism. For this to happen sustainably, civic bodies, state governments, and the central government must develop a strategic approach and implement safety, infrastructure, maintenance, public transportation, and public relations plans.

Our country can create several travel menus, such as a spiritual circuit, a cultural circuit, a royal circuit, an archaeology circuit, a jungle circuit, a beach circuit, an adventure circuit, a mountaineer circuit, a street food circuit, and a shopping circuit. The ‘Incredible India’ campaign and its website do a commendable job highlighting travel destinations and experiences. However, we need action on the ground to make India travel even more aspirational, and the time is now.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 2022 Economic Impact Report for India, the total contribution of tourism to India’s GDP dropped from $212 billion in 2019 to $178 billion in 2021. Domestic tourism in India has recovered from the impact of the pandemic. However, international tourism to our country is struggling at a fourth of pre-pandemic levels ($8.8 billion -- international visitor spend in 2021). This reduction in international visitor spend is even more acute in China and Japan. However, in 2019, China had an international visitor spend of $147 billion vs India at $34 billion. India should aspire to increase international visitor spend to at least $100 billion.

Growing up as the son of a DRDO scientist and a travel-loving mother, my family travelled the length and breadth of India using the central government leave travel concession (LTC). With my wife and kids, we toured the globe and India, making sure to experience life the local way. We have journeyed by road, train, and flight, we have walked a lot locally, ate local food, travelled with neighbours and made new friends, learnt history and had adventures, and got to know each other better as a family. My teams built the most incredible bonds at work while on offsites at the nearby Jungle Lodges, distant Andamans, and even local treks. Any trip can be optimised for cost and sustainability. There are many reasons to travel, and we always found ours. I always felt that I did not go to a place, the place came to me. Today, I extend the invitation again, aao ni padharo mhare desh.

(Gopichand Katragadda the former CTO of Tata Group and founder of AI company Myelin Foundry is driven to peel off known facts to discover unknown layers.)