Clean India - Cherishing a Tourism Dream
A good place to live is a good place to visit- Anonymous.
Teasers for the Indian star-studded movie “Toilet – Ek Prem Katha (Toilet- A Love Story)” scheduled for release in August 2017 are out. This film is a reminder call for all of us in India. Standards of health and hygiene are hurting Indian tourism, and it is no secret. Prime Minister has time and again emphasised the importance of cleanliness. He issued a clarion call for Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan- the Clean India Campaign.
Tourism today is not about visiting and seeing places. It is more about living a place- feeling it, internalising it. A visitor has heard about the splendour of Taj Mahal. She might travel thousands of miles to be in India to see Taj Mahal. On a short visit, day one, she arrives in Delhi and stays overnight. Next morning her tour operator drives her to Agra which takes around 4 hours. She visits Taj Mahal and spends around two to three hours there. Then, she might visit other places in Agra spending another 4 hours. She might stay overnight in Agra or travels back to Delhi spending another 4 hours. Next day she spends time going around Delhi and returns. During her three-day visit to India, she spends 2 hours at Taj Mahal, a few more hours at other places, but spend a bulk of time travelling and leisurely through street and bazaars of Delhi and Agra- the destinations. Her assessment of the holiday is the general feel of the destination- only a part of which is her trip to those famous attractions.
In business parlance, we may call these attractions ‘Anchor tenants’ and I would like to draw a parallel to a shopping mall. A visitor goes to a shopping mall looking for the desired brand -the Anchor Tenant. However, he spends a lot of time window shopping. The efficacy of a shopping mall is assessed by its ability to hold the shopper for long. Shopper, in turn, is held back by the ‘general feel’ of the mall- what other things it offers- the management of facilities, cleanliness, odour, lighting, music, management and control of the flow of traffic, the parking, the accessibility, and many other features. Summing up, while the anchor tenants attract the visitors, the experience at the mall holds them back. The longer the visitors stay in the mall, more likely are they to spend their money. The more they spend, the better it is for the owners/ promoters of the establishment. This argument extends to tourist destinations as well that today compete aggressively to seek the attention of the visitors from all over the world. Attractions at a destination might be the motivators for travel, but the ability of the destination to hold a tourist depends on the ‘feel good’ that it can create and extend.
An estimate suggests that a visitor spends roughly around 70% of his/her holiday budget on travel and accommodation a large part of which is paid before the start of the travel in the traveller’s country itself. Tourists spend roughly 30% of their holiday budget at the destination traversing it. Unfortunately, in India, this spending is much below the global average of 30%. While the common belief is that longer the tourists stay, more are they going to spend at the destination. And this is what the authorities at the destination want. The important question, therefore, is the ability of the destination to hold tourists longer by returning a spellbinding experience- a ‘taste’ of life at the destination- which in our case is India. How do we create a good feel for visitors while they travel across India?
To stage this ‘feel of the destination’ many destinations create earmarked tourist zones and tourist districts which are specially taken care for the tourists. A belief that is shared by many in the business is that this is not a sustainable approach to tourism. Tourism products and services artificially superimposed on a destination do not return a seamless (read real) experience. A tourist today wants to immerse self in the reality of destination comprising of animate and inanimate elements and feel the place. Tourists venture out to make sense of the place. For a tourist to feel good, the destination must be really good with all its elements contributing to it. Thus, for a place to be considered good for a visit, it must actually be good. It must be equally good for the residents. This goodness should be a characteristic of that place and not selectively imposed on a part of the destination.
India as not-so-clean a destination
One general feedback about Indian destinations is that ????? ?? ?? ???? ??- that the destination is good but lacks cleanliness and hygiene. Pauline Sheldon, a leading tourism educator from University of Hawaii puts it as:
India is a land of mystery to most Westerners. It is complex and diverse and not easily delineated in the tourist’s expectation set as are simpler destinations. Westerners expect a rich range of experiences when they visit India but are less sure what they will be, whether they will be able to handle them, and where they will find reliable help and information. Some are concerned they will be overwhelmed by the heat, crowds, dirt, poverty, chaos and logistical challenges, and yet want to experience the beauty and magic of the people, land and sites. That paradox of opposites seems to dominate Westerners’ images of India, and surely creates a challenge for tourism marketers of India to manage this contradiction in tourists’ minds. As the country develops more, as logistical and sanitary conditions improve, and as the wealth of touristic resources and experiences become known to different market segments, that contradiction will diminish.
Prof. Pauline conducted a survey of Westerners to understand the image of India. She asked them to just respond by listing 5 -10 words that described their image of India. Respondent included both those who have visited India more than once and those who have not visited India. The responses of western travellers who had visited India (they ranged from 1-10 times) commonly included words like contradictions, poverty, exotic, colourful, and spiritual; whereas for westerners who had never been to India the most common words that came up were crowded, poverty, exotic, dirty and diverse.
Apparently, the perception of being poor, dirty, crowded is hurting us the most. Image makeover will require a radical change at the surface. For visitors to believe that we are neat, clean and hygienic, we will actually have to be so. Sanitation drive and education of the community for the primacy of the same is the need of the hour. It is now widely accepted that investment in sanitation makes a good economic sense. Poor sanitation and hygiene have a huge cost for any community. Healthy citizen will contribute more.
Besides the direct economic benefits sanitation also makes economic sense for tourism. Cleanliness and sanitation are a prerequisite for a tourist’s visit. They also decide not to travel to an untidy destination for fear of catching infections and getting ill. Still, many of the Indian tourist attractions have inadequate sanitation facilities. There are few toilets. If there are any toilets, they are filthy. Cultural backgrounds also add to this. For the westerners, the concept of the toilet is that of a dry toilet whereas in India we have wet toilets. Wet toilets are perceived as dirty by many in the West.
A senior tour operator and ex-office bearer of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) once opined-
Tourists are very sensitive to this issue, and while selecting a destination, this part is given a due weight age, and on this account, we are often avoided by high-end tourists. Even big MNC’s advise their top executives to avoid India as they want to ensure that their valuable Executives are not affected by the unhygienic conditions as they spent a fortune to build the cadre of experts. So Hygiene part has affected our tourism business in a big way. Adequate personal and environmental cleanliness has a major impact on the image of India and the tourism sector, where the first impression of a visitor is often his last.
Sujit Banerjee, Ex- Secretary (Tourism) Government of India and ex-Secretary General of India Initiative of World and Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) had echoed a similar view-
The quality of the natural environment is inexorably linked to tourism. Poor sanitation facilities could influence the country’s attractiveness as a tourist destination. In the Indian context, many Tourism Destinations don’t have public toilets, solid waste management facilities and as a result, the Visitors often complain about the lack of cleanliness and hygiene. Subsequently, a general apathy and negativity about India is generated, that lingers on its image, and makes the destination unattractive.
Durga Singh is an experienced tour manager, who has spent thousands of hours facilitating travel of tourists to North India mainly Rajasthan. According to him, rural and heritage tourism is now taking visitors to interior parts of India. Every tourist at some stage of his/ her journey likes to walk around in the streets and bazaars. They walk around to get a feel of the town. In villages and suburban communities, most households have left their drain (the grey water -from their bathroom, washing, etc.) to flow on the street. The whole road is a drain with no place to walk.
Durga Singh has carefully watched and felt what tourist experience-
Today Shekhawati region popularly known as the Open Art Gallery of Rajasthan is visited by almost all tourists visiting Rajasthan. When they go on foot to see the beautiful, Havelis made by the Marwari families, they wade through these puddles and the flooded streets and feel VERY OFFENDED. This water then flows into some empty plot and becomes a lake of dirty water. These water pits are breeding ground for mosquitoes while the historic haveli and houses are vulnerable to seepage and spoilage.
People throw garbage right outside the houses while villages and small towns have no garbage collection system. Tonnes of garbage keeps lying around small towns and villages. When the tourists see this, they are appalled at the lack of civic sense in India
Durga Singh recalls being asked, “What is your government doing about this flowing grey water on the streets?” “I feel so ashamed to say I am sorry, as yet they are doing nothing.”
Paying the cost
Various sources have estimated direct tourism losses due to poor sanitation and hygiene. When tourists are dissatisfied with sanitation, they may not visit again or may discourage other potential tourists from visiting. Rack and others (2005) had reported that a third of tourists visiting Indian subcontinent suffer from gastrointestinal illnesses linked to lack of sanitation. There is a common perception of fear of getting malaria due to poor sanitation and particularly standing waste water in the community. Tourists have on numerous occasions cited poor quality of toilets as a reason for their dissatisfactory tourism experience. Not having access to proper toilets or seeing people defecate or urinate in the open take away from the tourism experience (WSP Report, 2011).
Christopher Juan Costain, the World Bank's head for South Asia's water and sanitation programme estimates that Indian economy loses $260 million (over Rs 1,000 crore) in tourism revenues due to poor sanitation as tourists are reluctant to come to India due to lack of sanitation facilities. "We all hear about people worrying over Delhi Belly, but tourists are unwilling to come here due to health concerns like this, and this is losing India money."
According to Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) report of 2011 on Economic Impact of Sanitation in India, there are two sources of economic losses to tourism- the potential loss of tourism due to poor sanitation and hygiene and cost of illness among foreign tourists attributable to poor sanitation and hygiene. The report calculates the loss as-
The estimated loss to tourism due to inadequate sanitation is calculated as the difference between actual revenue earned by the tourism sector and the counter-factual potential revenue that would have been earned if sanitation had been adequate. This is computed by analysing surveys reporting the number of tourists sufficiently dissatisfied to result in the loss of one tourist visit, that is, the tourist not returning or influencing another potential visitor not to visit the country. Potential revenue from tourism given adequate sanitation is estimated as the product of the potential number of tourists and the average spending per tourist.
Sanitation of a place, the tourist’s destination, cannot be left to chance. It cannot be a low priority with the destinations’ managers- the civic authorities. While the new-found thrust on cleanliness is a welcome move. The campaign led by none other than the prime minister is gaining acceptance. However, it will require a complimentary sanitation infrastructure to support the effort. A visitor would not like to throw garbage of piss in public place. But they are constrained by the availability of trash bins and clean toilets.
Strategizing for a clean India
Awareness, policy, public will along with enforcement, sanitation infrastructure leveraged by technology is perhaps the way forward. Like any other situation, creative solutions and community buy-in of the ideas is the key to success.
In this article, I take up the case of technology for toilets.
Technology can also pay an important role. For example, a Bio-Digester technology has been developed for resolving the problems of un-decomposed human waste. The innovation degrades and converts the human waste into usable water and gasses in an eco-friendly manner. The generated gas can be utilised for energy/ cooking and water for irrigation purposes.
The process involves the bacteria which feed upon the faecal matter inside the tank, through an anaerobic process which finally degrades the matter and releases methane gas that can be used for cooking, along with the treated water. The Bio-digester tank toilets can be manufactured and customised as per the requirement. These are actually low-cost toilets and have claimed to be virtually maintenance free. While government and donors can consider supporting the village and other locations with these toilets, the learners at school and college levels should be made aware of this technology.
While there is a new-found interest in adventure activities in India, planners and tourism professionals responsible for these activities may consider this technology for their campsites; a mobile-toilet version of this technology can find favours with event planners who are responsible for planning and rolling out outdoor fairs and festivals. A reference to this technology can, therefore, be part of tourism curriculum.
Corporate can adopt monuments, villages and localities where they can consider subsidising technology leveraged solutions like bio-toilets, mechanical road sweepers and cleaners, etc.
Given the challenging sanitation situation that India faces and the cultural orientation, sustaining the cleanliness and sanitation efforts through subsidy and corporate largesse is doubtful. Private agencies will always be wary of investing in sanitation because of the high costs involved in maintenance and low returns. Sustainable business models of private toilets have recently captured a lot of attention.
Case one is of Kerala-based Eram Scientific Solutions Ltd. that has come up with Delight Toilets also referred to as e-toilets. The self-cleaning technology involves an automatic flush and floor-sweeping mechanism. These significantly reduce dependence on guards and cleaners thereby significantly reducing the maintenance costs to almost half. Additionally, the remote-sensing technology allows its owners to check on several specifics of the toilets like the number of users, coins collected, flush counts and water level.
The toilets that cost between Rs. 2 to 4 lakhs (USD 3200 to 6400) can be used for advertising space and have reported a return of Rs. 20 to 30 thousand (USD 315 to 465) a month at suitable locations. Manufacturers are continuing to innovate on the toilet. They are researching to find ways to conserve more water by developing an “atmospheric water generator” to tap the humidity from the air.
Another example is a chain of high-end toilets in Delhi. A social entrepreneur Faud has a chain of lavish toilets in places like Connaught Place, Lodi Gardens, Sundar Nagar, Golf Links, etc. Each is a unique piece with marble, granite, chrome, plants, aquarium, etc. He charges a token Rs. 1 and 2 (2 to 3 cents) from users to instil a sense of responsibility. His main revenue stream is from Ads which is directly correlated to footfalls which are ever increasing. The income from ads enables him to pay better wages to his employees, make a decent profit and build more toilets.
Creative ideas for implementation of sanitation need to be encouraged. Paradoxically, Mawlynnong village in Meghalaya that claims to be the cleanest village is Asia is in India and cleanliness is its claim to fame-its tourism product, its attraction. It is an excellent example of public will and participation. This can be a good starting point.
We in India have had a good number of successes with social awareness campaigns. The government should budget for sustaining the Swacchh Bharat Campaign and related sub-campaign. As I write this article, the teasers of the film “Toilet- Ek Prem Katha (Toilet- A Love Story)” are already doing rounds and creating much-needed awareness among the masses. Once the movie is released in August 2017, it is going to further impact our sanitation sensibilities.
As a destination leaders the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and other state governments should consider including sanitation awareness and sensitisation as compulsory modules in its capacity building initiatives. They may also link cleanliness and sanitation efforts to rating, grading, licensing, etc. There needs to be provision for sanitation and cleanliness in any restoration of a monument and development of a destination under its different schemes.
In the Mediterranean basin, several countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco) have adopted the blue flag ecolabel, facilitating sanitation and tourism. The label constitutes a legitimate decision-making tool for accredited local authorities or those committed to accreditation.
Sujit Banerjee suggests “A matter of pride must be instilled in the community to encourage the cleanliness aspect. And last but not the least the communities must be recognised and rewarded for their respective roles and endeavours in cleanliness, consistency and used as a model institution for further propagating the cleanliness drives.”
Initiatives
Whatever be the commitment, governments cannot do it all by themselves. Participation of community as individuals and as private enterprise is an absolute must. Most of the stakeholders believe that PPP mode will help the cause. The Prime Minister has reiterated his vision of solid waste management and wastewater management through the PPP model in 500 towns and cities across India. A high demand-supply gap, low levels of financial backings make it a bigger challenge to execute PPP projects. The Government must create and implement a win-win model for the stakeholders to make Sanitation through PPP mode a success. Waste disposal system is our challenge. Governments need to provide the infrastructure.
To foster a healthy competition between cities for improving cleanliness standards, the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) started the “Swachh Survekshan” survey, ranking of cities on cleanliness and other aspects of urban sanitation, in 2016 which ranked 73 cities in the country. On the same lines, MoUD has initiated “Swachh Survekshan” 2017 which will conduct a survey to rank 500 cities of India.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also launched an initiative for awards to public health facilities in May 2015. Called “Kayakalp”, the initiative will encourage every public health facility in the country to work towards standards of excellence to help the facilities stay clean and hygienic. This does not apply only to physical cleanliness, but to develop and put in place systems and procedures for activities such as bio-waste disposal or protocols, etc. The initiative towards total cleanliness in public health facilities is aimed towards building the confidence of the users in public health facilities, provide quality service and encourage teamwork.
Researchers and practitioners can work to develop a sanitation index for the places including tourist destinations. The government can consider the same for promoting the idea by instituting a competitive award. Corporate can chip in to support these awards. Variations of this index with an intention to involve the stakeholders can also be introduced in schools and colleges so that cleanliness becomes a cherished value for the youth.