Narendra Modi in Lakshadweep
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, January 21: The world tourism market is worth over one thousand billion dollars. India’s share in the world tourism is just about 1.6 per cent. India is currently the fifth largest economy in the world. But India is at the 12th position among countries with the highest earnings from tourism.
Now that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is set to welcome the global visitors in a big number, there is an anticipation that India could also aspire to improve its position in the tourism market in the world. Incidentally, tourism within India by the people is mostly about visiting the religious places, and temples occupy the central position.
There are about 20 lakh temples in India. Also, four crore people roughly are associated with the tourism and travel industry in India. There is an ambitious push on the part of the government to significantly scale up the Indian stake in the global tourism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Lakshadweep islands which kicked off the diplomatic storm with Maldives is seen as part of the efforts to raise Indian profile in the global tourism. Incidentally, beach tourism hogs the limelight in the world tourism, and India also attracts a large number of tourists to its beaches in Goa.
Ashwini Mahajan of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch in an article claimed that “the Modi government is working to strengthen the temple economy in a planned manner. Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Mahakal Lok for Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling in Ujjain, Kashi Corridor for Kashi Vishwanath, temple renovation and Shankaracharya Sthal in Kedarnath, Ekatm Dham in Omkareshwar, renovation of Sharda Peeth in Kashmir and development of Kailash Darshan in Uttarakhand in are steps in the same direction.”
Ironically, Indians are the fourth largest travel spender in the world. There is an estimate which suggests that Indians would spend over $400 billion on travel and tourism by 2030. By then India also aspires to be the third largest economy in the world.
India hopes to attract more foreign tourists in future to raise the profile of the country in the international tourism circuit. Last year, more than 75 lakh foreign tourists arrived in India. Also, India unveiled cruise river tourism last year with MV Ganga Vilas running to the packed capacity with tourists from Switzerland booking the ship fully on its inaugural run.
The US holds the top slot in the world tourism and China occupies the fourth position. The US earns $128.9 billion from tourism. China also earns more than $50 billion from tourism annually. India earns just $17.7 billion from tourism.
The share of religious tourism in India is 60 per cent, and 11 per cent of foreign tourists come for religious purposes. The share of tourism in India’s GDP is about seven per cent, employing four crore people. With India becoming an alternative destination against China amid global trend to avoid the Communist nation, India appears poised to significantly improve its share in the world tourism.
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