With growth in international arrivals in India, there would be a creation of approximately one million additional jobs, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report.
As India prepares to launch the Incredible India 2, the report put forward few recommendations, including the importance of public-private cooperation in its execution, and suggesting that advantage be taken of the unexplored 6,00,000 villages with their own culture and heritage, ecotourism and cruise tourism to create unique experiences for travellers.
Another recommendation was to integrate the Incredible India campaign into a holistic campaign that includes not only print but also other channels, such as digital, social, placement, review sites and global media, focussing on the positives of visitor-created content while addressing the challenges these visitors say.
Taking advantage of the labour force available in India to provide a quality product to tourists and enhancing the perception and reality of India as a safe destination were other recommendations.
Several top names from the Indian travel and aviation industry have contributed towards the findings in the report, the WEF said in a statement on Wednesday.
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"The industry is people focused and the quality of its people defines the value of the product. Hence the need to train and educate staff is acute here", said Aditi Balbir, one of the contributors to the report.
He observed that the industry had the power to create jobs across the economy at various skill levels, and for the marginalized sectors of the society.
The WEF white paper also recommends a proposal to create a Tourism Board.
"Currently, India's travel and tourism industry is fragmented and lacks a unified public-private body to represent the industry, in turn hindering its ability to achieve its potential.
"This board could support enhancing industry coordination, public-private sector initiatives and enacting change through policy recommendations," it said.
It noted that India welcomed nine million international travellers in 2016 and its domestic demand nearly touched the 100 million mark, adding India is effectively one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world and according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, one of the most improved nations, reaching 40th position compared to 65th in 2013.
--IANS
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