#Covid19 Times - Planning for Tomorrow's Tourism

#Covid19 is one of the most unwanted, unexpected tourist that the world ever wanted. Tourism has been the first sector to go on a ventilator as a result of this epidemic . The industry has been severely hit and it is believed to be one of the biggest setback ever in the history.

As per United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in the year 2020 global international tourist arrivals could decline between 20-30%, down from an estimated growth of 3% to 4% forecast in early January 2020. This means a loss of US$ 30 to 50 billion in international visitor spending. As a result, 50 million jobs in the global travel and tourism sector is at risk out of which 30 million would be in Asia ( source WEF). In India alone,  industry bodies estimated an overall loss of Rs 5 lakh crore and job cuts for 4-5 crore people. But these numbers might change given the uncertainty of the situation.

Over the years, tourism has been one of the sector that was helping in economic inclusion & a grassroot level social change. The industry employs millions of skilled and unskilled people & supports small businesses. Small and medium sized enterprises who make up around 80% of the sector are in the danger of closing down. As both the global and local tourism markets have crashed, all the efforts put in by Govt’s, Industry & Businesses over last few years have gone in vain.

The future of tourism though unpredictable one thing is very clear that it will not be the same again. The way people think of tourism, destinations market themselves and way it is operated and managed on ground will be completely different. Though it is a challenging situation, this epidemic also has given the industry an opportunity for innovation and planning for next few decades. New business models emerge, processes get streamlined and technology adoption will be more faster. This is time for Government, Industry and Businesses engage in effective conversations, brainstorm  & come up with structures and policies not just for next 5 years but 50 years ahead.  Here are few suggestions on how we should plan for #Tomorrow’s Tourism in India!

#1 Neither #Over, Nor #Under

Until few months ago, tourism industry had different problems like lack of skilled manpower and ‘over’ tourism. Industry worldwide started speaking about the need of sustainable tourism. Over tourism results adverse effects like water scarcity, traffic jams, air pollution and landfill. Few Indian destinations like Ladakh, Shimla, Goa, Agra etc have been the victims high influx of tourists. On the contrary, few other destinations remained unknown. Now it’s a completely different scenario. From over tourism, it has become under tourism. Lack of skilled manpower to job threat to talented resources. The revival process should be focused on ‘fair share’ of tourism economy distribution for all states . This will also help to stop migration and contributes to balanced growth.

#2 Dekho Apna Desh – Campaign to Constructive

On the occasion of 73rd Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ‘ Dekho Apna Desh’ campaign and urged people to visit 15 domestic tourist destinations by the year 2022. Special incentives have been announced for people who take up the challenge to travel within state despite the availability of infrastructure & facilities. It’s time to quickly get into the next phase from awareness to strategic action to promote domestic destinations. The places within the radius of 100- 150 km from metropolitan cities to be identified and promoted as safe and quick getaways. This will also help people to recover from mental health issues due to the lockdown and the stress.

#3 Destination Management v/s Marketing

For several years, tourism departments, destination marketing organisations (DMO’s) have excessively focused on marketing destinations . Since the outbound tourism might take anywhere between 12- 18 months to resume back, the budget can be invested in streamlining destination management. The approach should be beyond physical infrastructure, to focused on ‘softer’ elements & ‘ place’ centric. Few key areas of management is to identify key stakeholders, products identification, creating networks, education & capacity building programs. As of now, programs like ‘ Know India’ was focussed on engaging external audience but now is the time to engage internal audience. Tourism departments should initiate online education programs like ‘ know your town’ ‘ know your state’ so that people start valuing their culture and places which will result in quality experience delivery for tourists in future. Future travel destinations will be chosen based on the factors like safety, security, hygiene and the disaster management policies of destinations. Therefore local communities to be trained to address these needs.

#4 Strengthen Alternate Tourism 

One of the top trends witnessed in tourism industry is a major shift from mass tourism (from visiting) to specific interest tourism SIT (experiencing). SIT is a niche tourism, which is also referred to as Alternative Tourism or Experiential Tourism that caters to the specific/personalized interests of a traveller in arts, crafts, culture, music, culinary, heritage, and the special character of a place. 

Governments have been working in promoting niche tourism, but post Covid-19 would be an opportunity to further strengthen the alternate tourism forms especially health and wellness tourism by empowering micro and small businesses and freelancers. Key triggers for alternate tourism would be health, happiness and safety Instead of price, destination attractiveness, distance.

#5 Industry Leadership

So far, the Industry Associations in India are primarily established in mass tourism forms like Leisure, MICE. Most of them are head quartered in the National Capital, having less control and knowledge about regional and local issues. Now the focus should be strengthening industry leadership in alternate tourism forms. These networks should be more than policy inputs but should actively get involved in destination development . The state tourism & culture departments should play a key role in facilitating and creating these networks by supporting with office space, grants and strategic direction .

#6 Support Culture and Creative Industries

People singing from the balconies of Italy to Clapping & lightening lamps in India, culture brought us together in a situation where billions of people are physically separated. Culture keeps communities connected & united in tough times.

The Culture and Creative Industry (CCI) comprises of 32 plus creative fields including architecture, interiors, photography, films, art, crafts, culinary, music and dance. CCI Industry is one of the key trigger in attracting tourism by creating attractive content and products in addition to direct contribution to the GDP. During the last few decades, European destinations have been getting major share of culture tourism. India is yet to reap the benefits of its rich culture and heritage. It’s time to focus on creating culture and creative clusters. One way of facilitating this change is by ‘reclaiming & retrofitting culture spaces’ which are not used up to their potential. These places play a key role in transforming communities & act as ‘vehicles’ for local development by providing platforms to artists and micro businesses.

#7 Entrepreneurship – Focus on MSME

Tourism has been the first one to get affected in case of any Natural Calamity, Terrorism, Economic Crisis but Covid19 further proved the vulnerability of tourism and risks associated with the investments. As the entire supply chain has been affected, job cut is inevitable. Entrepreneurs will play a very important role in industry recovery if they are supported and backed in this crisis. It’s important for the Govt. and Industry to collaborate and support start-ups.

Concluding Thoughts

Not just in the Tourism, this is time for restructure, revive, reinvent and reimagine for every sector. Rethinking tourism and preparing for recovery is also not easy as things are changing every day. The focus should be on adopting changes that are less vulnerable and can restrain to such situations in future. Success of Tomorrow’s Tourism is all about place led development, resident entertainment, preserving local culture and heritage, building resilience in the communities so that they can withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult challenges.

#ReimaginingTourism #IncredibleIndia #Covid19