Chapter: 7

Conclusion and Suggestions

Tourism with multi-dimensional activity has evolved one of the
largest and lucrative industries of the new millennium. Despite varied
and rich cultural heritage, India's share in world tourism has been
reported to be dismal. It has been estimated that India's travel and
tourism potentials can provide its economy substantial resources in the
coming years. It is expected that tourism has potential to provide 7
million new jobs, provided that potential of tourism resources is
effectively exploited. The potential of tourism in India can be viewed
against the global scenarios. Globally tourism has touched $ 476 billion
tourism receipts with the 10.6 per cent of the global workforce, 10.2 per
cent contribution to GDP, generating tax revenues of $ 655 billion and
gross out put of $ 3.4 trillion. However, India's share in global tourism is
dismal. It is to be noted that tourism in India during last 50 years has
shown tremendous progress. From a beginning of 17000 international
tourists in 1950 contributing Rs. 7.7 crore to the economy the present
arrival of 2.64 million tourists contributing about $ 3.5 billion in foreign
exchange earnings and the number of domestic tourists has swelled to
a massive 200 million is really a substantial progress. Thus, India has to
evolve the strategies of tourism development to make a respectable
position in the global tourism industry. India has the potential of
becoming a major player in the world tourism league, endowed as it is
with unrivalled resources ranging from its millennia old heritage,
Kaleidoscopic landscape, a wide variety of delectable cuisine and a rich
mosaic of culture an people's traditions. Tourism industry being the
labour intensive has potential to solve the problem of unemployment
and reducing poverty. Moreover, tourism is most effective instrument for
natural integration, harmony and thus leading towards social

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transformation and upliftment of rural poor. It has already proved that
the return on investment in tourism from the point of view of
employment generation is much higher to agriculture and manufacturing
sector. The tourism policy and action plan has also pointed out that
multi-dimensional efforts are needed to exploit the tourism potential and
managing tourism resources. Tourism has many advantages over other
industries.

Many factors have contributed to this growth. The tremendous

changes in the civil aviation sector, rapid developments in world
economy, increasing levels of individual earnings, and marketing of
tourism destinations are some of the important factors, which led to the
growth of tourism industry. World Tourism Organization and the World
Travel and Tourism Council have estimated that: (i) by 2020, there will
be 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide; (ii) they will be
spending about $2000 billion; (iii) the average growth rate in tourism will
be 4.3 per cent in arrivals and 6.7 per cent in receipts; (iv) between
1995 and 2005, 144 million new jobs would have been created in this
sector and 112 million jobs will be created in Asia-Pacific region alone.

The above opportunities in tourism sector in the changing global

situations also demand for management strategies to face them
effectively and avail the opportunities to its potential. In brief these
specific issues of marketing strategy are:

 There is need for a new market strategy which must be driven by

new technology and with the tune of business environment;

 India’s new tourism destinations have to be assessed and their

effective marketing is needed;

 India should adopt the policy of tourism promotion through offering

incentives and marketing;

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 Tourism related infrastructure and services should be expanded and
further developed.

WTO has estimated that there will be 1.6 billion international

tourists by the year 2020 and Asia will emerge as the second region to
be the most visited in the world. India being rich in cultural and natural
heritage is likely to experience its share in global tourism. India,
however, faces two major challenges in the globalized world i.e.
exploitation of tourism potential and designing strategies for tapping
such potential. Therefore, 'Tourism 2020 Vision' document has identified
the following priorities: (1) Strategic marketing, (2) Product
differentiation and quality improvement, (3) Sustainable tourism
development, (4) Private - Public partnership, (5) Improving brand
image and positioning, (6) Strategic planning and management of
resources, (7) Development of new destinations, (8) Use of electronic
and internet services for facilitation and data base preparation

India has to evolve the strategies of tourism development to make

a respectable position in the global tourism industry. India has the
potential of becoming a major player in the world tourism league,
endowed as it is with unrivalled resources ranging from its millennia old
heritage, kaleidoscopic landscape, a wide variety of delectable cuisine
and a rich mosaic of culture and people's traditions. Tourism industry
being the labour intensive has potential to solve the problem of
unemployment and reducing poverty. Moreover, tourism is most
effective instrument for natural integration, harmony and thus leading
towards social transformation and upliftment of rural poor. It has already
proved that the return on investment in tourism from the point of view of
employment generation is much higher to agriculture and manufacturing
sector. The tourism policy and action plan has also pointed out that
multi-dimensional efforts are needed to exploit the tourism potential and

214
managing tourism resources. Tourism has many advantages over other
industries.

The impressive growth of economy and new business

environment is offering an opportunity for Indian Railways to play a
critical role in transport sector and tourism development. In the freight
business, there was focus on higher volumes with the objective of
lowering the unit costs, resulting in the record surplus. The strategy for
freight rates made a clean departure from the past by (i) freezing freight
rate increases and (ii) rationalizing the commodity classification to
benefit the high value goods and charge more from the low rated
commodities. The strategy of higher volumes was also carried through
in the passenger business. The concept of revenue management,
wherein differential prices could be charged for differential services like
tatkal and superfast were leveraged. In the other business areas of
parcel, catering and advertising, the strategy of outsourcing through
public private partnership and wholesaling rather than retailing was
adopted by Indian Railways. The strategy of higher volumes has done
well for the railways.

The tariff strategy in the 1990s had not recognized the market
reality, especially as a consequence of the liberalization. Corrective
strategies in terms of rationalization of freight classes had begun from
2002-03, with a reduction from 59 classes to 32 in one year. These
strategies had continued over the past two years, bringing down the
number of classes. While the higher volumes and market oriented tariffs
have increased revenues under the scenario of economic growth, the
issue of customer oriented strategy development is still in question. One
of the important lacunae in Indian Railways is its ability to understand to
the customers. In spite of various initiatives, the approach is essentially
supply driven. While the important customers have appreciated the
recent initiatives in increasing Indian Railways’ traffic handling ability,

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they have been unhappy with the unilateral approach. Concerns like
changes in rates, demurrage free hours, laudability of wagons, etc.
have been repeatedly voiced. The recent initiative of providing
automatic upgrades to passengers when there is vacancy in a higher
class has proved well as it has improved the overall brand image of
Indian Railways.

From the perspective of Indian Railways responding to

environmental changes in a fast growing economy, what is required is a
framework for continued innovation. We shift our focus from just the
current strategic initiatives to the process of continuing such initiatives.
Towards this, the strategies and processes can be sustained if the
political leadership is well intentioned and has consistency of direction.
Political leadership does not come in through a controlled process. The
need is for the professional top management to be able to respond as a
commercially oriented organization with a corporate culture.

Strategies and processes have to be customer centric. The

current structure of the organization lends itself primarily to supply
driven strategies, where at best the initiatives are what the Indian
Railways thinks is good for the customer and not necessarily driven
from the customers’ perspective. An important strategic tool to evolve
customer-centric strategies is market segmentation. There could be
other dimensions of segmentation like size of customer, time value of
cargo, geographic origin/destination, monetary value of the cargo, rake
load vs non rake load shipper, etc.

Strategies and processes have to be scientifically based. This

needs a paradigm shift on research, development and training to evolve
and sustain increasing asset utilization and new technologies and
systems that are world class. There is scope in increasing the asset
utilization in all the infrastructure elements: right of way (track), rolling
stock (locomotives, coaches and wagons), and terminals. Given a

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railway system that has a natural advantage of scale, investments in
research, development and training will yield long term returns, not only
from use in Indian Railways, but also from global markets. Top down
restructuring with a focus on customers and merging of cadres, beyond
the mid way career are imperatives for the Indian Railways.

It is abundantly clear that Indian Railways is being forced to look

outwards for finance and techno-managerial skills. The list of projects is
currently being selected without any sound official articulation or
planning. The rationale for doing projects in PPP format appears to be
resource constraint rather than this route being a more efficient and / or
cost effective service delivery mechanism. The Railways need to have a
clear roadmap for projects to be done in PPP mode. In order to avoid
hitting any political roadblocks later, it is imperative that the Blueprint for
PPP s in Indian Railways should have political legitimacy and
acceptance cutting across party lines. Private sector participation be
invited in areas which require immediate attention and that too where
the private sector is capable of reducing costs and improving the quality
of service.

It is imperative to move away from a situation where Indian

Railways is promoting PPPs as well as playing the role of a regulator.
Creating an enabling environment for PPPs is of paramount importance.
Corporatization of Indian Railways is the best way to take the
restructuring of the Indian Railways forward. The Indian Railways
should also adopt sound principles of accounting. The role of the Indian
Railways Regulatory Authority should be strengthened and it should be
allowed to decide the fares to be charged from the passengers.

There are a few major thrust areas that can be taken into
consideration for tourism development in India:

 Eco-friendly sustainable development according to natural settings

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 Creating awareness and people's participation in decision making
process for developing tourism products and services,
maintenance of heritage tourism sites and exposure cultural
deposits

 Improving the quality of services through capacity building to

human resources and service providers

 Developing tourist friendly culture and strict enforcement of laws.

Tourist police may be introduced to provide assistance to tourists
and conservation of heritage sites, flora and fauna

 Improving basic amenities at newer tourist destinations and

wayside to major tourist destination

 Brand positioning of tourism resources and though evolvement of

local community based organizations

 Information dissemination through published materials, developing

websites, and MIS

 Developing new tourist destinations, such as water parks, wild life

park and sanctuaries, resorts, cottages heritage and cultural sites
etc.

 Developing beach tourism for recreation purpose at major

destinations in southern states

 Developing wildlife tourism in protected areas and promotion of

natural heritage, resources, environment protection and flora and
fauna

 Adventure tourism promotion for developing sports, trekking, and

establishing cottages, rest houses in remote and isolation areas in
the dense forest for stay of tourists under struck monitoring and
regulation

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 Promotion of rural tourism in natural settings for development of
crafts, arts, traditional performing arts, floriculture, crops fields,
rivers, folk lore, dances, theatre, folk songs, ritual performance,
fairs and festivals etc. as well as to attract tourists

 Promotion of ethnic tourism for upliftment of socio-economic

conditions of the tribal people, and conservation of cultural
deposits

 Pilgrimage tourism development for promotion of domestic tourism

since India has rich and varied religious tourism resources

 Developing marketing plan and promotional campaign for attracting

domestic tourists and international tourists from abroad.

Suggestions:

 Tourism is service industry and the quality of service makes all

the different between competing destinations. A comprehensive
human resource development programme should be a key
element of future policy. Such programme of human resource
development should also cover orientation of the staff at airports,
customer's facilitator, guides etc. on continuous bases.

 Human centred organizations should be promoted to make

tourism industry more lucrative and joyful. The shortage of
manpower in tourism department should be taken into
consideration and be removed through engaging personnel on
contact basis. Moreover, tourism sector should seek consultancy
for improving the organizational efficiency and performance of
man power engaged in tourism development and promotion.

 It is the high time to go for privatization of services. There should

be more partnership between public and private sector for
development of tourism infrastructure and delivery of services.

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 Local NGOs, voluntary organizations and people's cooperatives
should be promoted to take active part in tourism development in
the state.

 Marketing of tourism will necessary require developing of tourism

friendly culture and strict enforcement of laws. Tourist police or
tourist assistance force may be introduced in the state, which will
provide assistance to tourists, conservation of heritage sites, flora
and fauna.

 Public sector such as Railways, Roadways, Communication

Networks, Police, Para-military Forces, Industries, Forests and
Environment Department, Business Houses, Airways Services
providers etc. may play a vital role in tourism development and
promotion in the state. During the peak such as winter, autumn
and summer, special services package may be offered by such
organizations to facilitate tourists. Moreover, tourist friendly policy
may be introduced by these organizations and stakeholders.

 Future tourist choice will be guided by various factors that create

an image about the country and particularly state. Issues of
environment and ecological preservation, human right violation,
drug abuse, child sex abuses etc. will be important factors in such
decision process.

 Adequate information should be available on need sites and

through published materials. There should be complete data base
regarding common facilities, destinations, tourism products,
services, local culture, art and crafts, heritage etc. Management
Information System will also help in analyzing the situation or
environment and formulating marketing strategies. Moreover,
complete data base regarding tourist arrivals, stay, services
engaged and view perceptions concerning to image and status of
tourism resources, services, infrastructure and their management,
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 should be properly maintained and analyzed for policy formulation
and action plan.

 An integrated, systematic, strategic marketing planning approach

should be applied for development and promotion of tourism in
the state. In such an approach, consideration should be given to
coordinating and integrating the varied activities of regional
tourism development and regional tourism marketing. Such a
strategic marketing planning approach should entail : (i) a regular
formal and systematic analysis of micro environment with the help
of available data base and carrying capacity surveys; (ii) a regular
resource analysis while the emphasis is placed on the major
strengths and weaknesses of the tourism offerings and tourism
business; (iii) formulation of goal and objectives of regional
tourism development; (iv) developing a regional marketing
strategy for targeting markets, brand positioning and managing
marketing mix at the regional level (circuits); (v) developing
effective management supporting systems for evolving
mechanism of preparing data base and regional planning
systems.

 It is imperative to ensure commercial utilization of surplus land

and other assets of the Railways in order to earn additional
resources and to make greater use of telecom and information
technology to improve efficiency is the need of hour.

 Commuter surveys conducted at various academic institutions

and different points of time have indicated that passengers do not
mind to increase moderately in fares for better passenger
amenities and better travel safety. It is also suggested that the
basic facilities such as bed roll and drinking water (Rail Neer),
may be provided to all the passengers having reservations even
in sleeper classes. In view of the increase in cost of maintenance

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 and operation, nominal amount for such facilities may be charged
in the reservation charges.

 In order to mobilize resources, Indian Railways may ensure

rationalization of fare and freight structure and aggressive
marketing of tourism products and services besides enhancing
the budgetary allocations by the Government of India.

 Indian Railways should pay greater emphasis on human resource

development and human resources planning. The existing human
resources may be provided comprehensive training and capacity
building and promoted for performing additional role and
responsibilities while there should be selection of senior officials
on deputation and contract basis so that there is no additional
financial burden on establishment.

 Indian Railways may launch new tourist trains and coaches on

public private partnership basis as a pilot project. This will reduce
the financial burden in terms of launching of new tourist trains by
Indian Railways besides promoting tourism through providing
world class tourist amenities, services and facilities in trains. The
successful pilot projects may be replicated at the later stage.

 The Indian Railways should establish budget hotels at major

railway stations serving specific tourist centres. These budget
hotels may be established on public private partnership basis and
private sector should be encouraged to operate these hotels on
long term leases. The hotels could provide cost effective
accommodation for the budget tourists besides providing
conferencing, meeting and banquet facility so that during off
season, these hotels may earn business from other than tourists.

 The Indian Railways owns a number of heritage structures,

railway museums, locomotives, buildings, railway stations, tracks,

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 etc. which may serve as a places of tourist attractions. However,
there should be effective and innovative brand strategy to
promote tourism through marketing of these tourism resources.

 India is the proud possessor hill railways, which can compare with
the best hill railway system in the world. These railways are
included by UNESCO as world heritage. It is essential to tap the
enormous tourist potential of these products by developing these
special tourist trains.

 Special tourist trains like royal Orient, Budh Parikrama, Palace-

on-Wheels and Fairy Queen are extremely popular with tourists,
as they are steam hauled tourist trains. Steam traction is still
operative in India and for special tourist segment it should be
continued in perpetuity, otherwise skill to operate this kind
technology could die.

 More high speed trains like Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Jan Shatabdi
with a special tourism and hospitality focus should be planned
both for foreign and domestic tourists. However, focus should be
on low tariff charges so that budget tourists may avail the facilities
and encourage for visiting tourist destinations.

 The Indian Railways have not been able to put in position a

detailed tourism policy, which would define various initiatives and
proposals for the benefit of tourist, both international and
domestic. In the absence of a clearly defined tourism policy listing
out detailed programmes, procedures and circuits the industry
has been left to undertake rudimentary tie ups and has not been
able to organize proper packages. The railways have not
marketed tourism till recently as a specific package and have not
been able to guarantee confirmed tickets, return journey
programmes and have left the various agencies to deal with
ticketing issues on their own.
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 There is a clear need for the Railways to clearly define its tourism
strategy and enable marketing of various circuits at meaningful
and competitive prices. It has to be clearly understood that
tourism projects have extremely long gestation period with
productive earning only from 4th year onwards and have a very
high marketing costs in view of sustained intensive marketing
campaigns to be undertaken in different medias/publicity
campaigns.

 There is urgent need for the government and specially the Indian
Railways to promote rail tourism in India by enumerating specific
procedures, which facilitate the process with ease of
convenience, flexibility in approach and competitive pricing. Close
coordination is desirable and necessary between the Ministers of
Railways, Tourism and Civil Aviation for creating proper synergy
and coordination.

 It would be impractical to expect quick economic returns from

tourism projects and circuits since development has to take place
over long term for projects to be economically sustainable. There
is immediate necessity for placing emphasis on developing
specific tourist circuits with proper infrastructure and fast
connectivity. In view of the need of the tourists to reach the
destination in the shortest possible and convenient time, facilities
would have to be provided on ensuring accommodation on the
most convenient and quick transit trains.

 The Indian Railways will have to evolve flexible rating structure

keeping in view the demand situation in order to ensure higher
level of seat utilization by tourists. Indian Railways will be able to
gain substantial business of tourism traffic with a flexible rating
approach based on indications given above.

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 India has great potential for developing Rail tourism sector for
tapping the large numbers of domestic tourists presently travelling
in an unorganized manner. The most important issue of pricing
the product of rail travel.

 Tourism travel globally is discounted with attractive tariff rates

given for tourism promotion. Even in India, the airlines and hotel
sectors has been offering special incentives for tourists including
discounts on fares/tariffs.

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