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Improve service, then tourists will come from Vienna to Sikkim, PM tells industry

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said it was not infrastructure alone but the unsatisfactory quality of service which was the major reason for the slow growth of tourism in India.

''Both foreign and Indian visitors who come to different parts of the country find that they do not always get helpful service. I have no doubt that tourism in India will flourish faster if our hotel owners, taxi operators, guides, local shopkeepers and all other service-providers work with single-minded determination to improve the way they deal with the tourists,'' Vajpayee said.

Addressing a gathering of winners of national tourism awards in New Delhi, the prime minister asked them to redouble their efforts to achieve excellence in attracting more tourists.

''We should create conditions wherein a tourist, sitting in Visakhapatnam or Vienna, can plan his visit to the wonderful and magical states of Arunachal Pradesh or Sikkim. For this to happen our entire travel and tourism industry will have to change the way they do business.''

Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana, Minister of State for Tourism Omak Apang, and a large number of people, including foreign journalists visiting the country, attended today's function which marks India Tourism Day and also the culmination of the National Tourism Week which began on January 19.

The prime minister said service could also be improved by using information technology. ''I would urge the tourism industry in India to make the fullest possible use of computers and the Internet.''

He said it was necessary today to focus attention on the gap between achievement and the country's target and also the gap between the progress of tourism in India and that in other countries of Asia and the world.

India, he said, had everything to cater to the diverse preferences of domestic and international tourists. Yet, the target of five million tourists had not been achieved whereas even smaller countries are getting tens of millions of tourists.

He acknowledged that infrastructure was a major constraint in the development of tourism. For this the government had established certain institutional mechanisms to achieve coordination and synergy between all the infrastructural ministries like civil aviation, railways and surface transport.

''Even as we continue with our efforts to create new airports, air routes, roads and other transport facilities and develop new destinations and services on a continuing basis, it is important to improve what we already have."

''We need to ensure that our railway stations and bus-stands are kept clean and function efficiently. We also need simpler ways of buying tickets and making reservations. These small but important changes, which need relatively less investment, go a long way in making travel and tourism in India more pleasurable,'' the prime minister said.

He said laws and regulations could not ensure the lasting impression that a tourist takes back. It was basically the responsibility of the people, including those working in government agencies to develop a tourist-friendly attitude.

The prime minister said everybody has to resolve to remove every scope for complaint for every type of tourist.

He said international tourism had become highly competitive. There were several destinations in the world vying for the same tourist. In addition, the industry had also to face several challenges from time to time like economic recessions, law-and-order problems and inter-country conflicts.

''Our tourism sector must gear up to face this challenge effectively. This requires, among other things, a more concerted and coordinated effort involving the central and state governments, industry, tourism promotion organisations at various levels and even our embassies and NRI associations abroad,'' Vajpayee said.

Khurana said his ministry had already started implementing the action plan as had been spelt out in the new tourism policy which would be shortly discussed by the Cabinet.

He was also of the view that the country should become a ''pleasant and comfortable experience'' for tourists. He said there were many problems faced by the tourists on facilitation at the airport or in their visits within the country.

To make such facilitation easy and to remove hassles to travel, including from touts, several steps were being taken.

''As a first step towards finding a solution, I am discussing this matter with the minister for civil aviation, the lieutenant governor and the chief minister of Delhi and other concerned officials next week and I hope we will be able to put in place some remedial measures,'' Khurana said.

UNI

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