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Tourism and the Indian Urban Regeneration: The Importance of Urban

Tourism in India-A General Perspective.

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 Tourism and the Indian Urban Regeneration: The Importance of Urban Tourism in India:
A General Perspective

Introduction:
The purpose of the position paper is to develop a meaningful debate on the importance of urban
tourism in developing countries with special reference to India where rapid urbanisation is a
constant factor of concern.
In recent times, many developed countries have been using urban tourism development policies as
effective measures in their drive to regenerate and rejuvenate their historical and modernising
cities so that they are becoming much sought after destinations in regional and international
tourist circuits (Mullins, 1991; Roche, 1992). One underlying dimension of these policies is the aim
of generating more employment in the service sector of the urban economy along with creating a
livable urban environment (C. M. Hall & S.J. Page, 1999). Therefore, the strategies are multi-
pronged. This paper endeavours to focus attention on the importance of urban tourism
development in India and the legitimate recognition of those relevant urban development

policies.
The main objectives of this position paper are:
u to assess the existing notion that urban tourism can be gauged as an impetus to urban
regeneration (with examples from Australian cities);
u to view urban tourism as a workable strategy in the amelioration of urban living conditions in
Indian cities;
u to assess the importance of Indian urban tourism in the light of rapid and uncontrollable Indian
urbanisation; and
u to overview the derived benefits from the development and incorporation of urban tourism
policies in the general framework of urban development in India.
Urban tourism: A Geographical perspective:
According to the World Tourism Organization (1999), 625 million tourists visited a
foreign country in 1998 and receipts from international tourism, excluding airfares,
climbed 2 % to US $ 444.7 billion.
Europe attracted 11 million more overseas tourists in 1998. The tourism earnings
increased about 3.6 % and that is about US$ 8 billion more than the previous year.
Tourism receipts for Spain for example increased to 11 %, five times more than the
world average and this has pushed Spain to the much acclaimed status of second best
sought after destination in the world next only to France (WTO, 1999). The big
international events such as World Cup Soccer and EXPO 98 have benefited the
international tourism sector of Europe and the main benefactors were undoubtedly the
big cities of Europe. These facts underline the importance of urban tourism, an obvious
factor to reckon with, while contemplating any strong urban economy focussing on
sustainable urban development.

1
Social scientists and geographers in particular have long attempted to identify the nature
of and to discern the intrinsic pattern of urban places, why certain places excel over
others in quality and image (Harvey, 1989). It is no secret that cities have grown since
time immemorial thanks to commerce and industry. A second phase in this form of
urbanisation became very dominant after the nineteenth and the second half of the
twentieth century. The emergence of steel towns based on mining, shipbuilding and
cotton are the benchmarks of this special period of urban-growth and development
(Berry, 1976; Champion, 1989; C.M.Law, 1993).
The other important but less understood factor outside the spatial sciences is the concept of ‘urban
hierarchy, popularly known as ‘Central Places’ and propounded by the German geographer Walter
Christaller. Most countries do exhibit an urban hierarchy moving down from the largest city,
providing a wide range of functions and services to its vast surrounding areas, to the lowest level
of designated town, providing much smaller variety of functions and services to its own trade
areas, comprising of identifiable clusters of regional or rural settlements. In many developed
countries, the notion of urban hierarchy has undergone remarkable changes due to the innovations
and developments that have occurred in those manufacturing industrial structures relevant to

particular cities. (Pred, 1966).

Rapid advancements in mechanisation and automation have affected the primary and secondary
sectors of industrial production rather than the tertiary or services sector and this has made a
significant impact on the increase demand for man power in the urban services sector (C. Law,
1992). This shift is largely recognised by urban researchers as the emergence of a post-industrial
society in the western world, which is evolving into a more sophisticated ultra-modern urban
society which now demands a very high quality of life-style in their city environment (Kent
Robertson, 1999).
The ‘tertiarization’ of the urban economy in western cities has given more opportunities and
advantages to these cities with a sound business focus, with the notable growth of investment and
resultant job creation in urban finance and business services (Massey,1984). This emerging

phenomenon in many western cities has helped the tourism industry to become a
recognisable factor for income generation, job creation and most of all the re-positioning
of the very character of the city itself (Rose Mary Burton, 1995). In recent times the
growth industries in western cities appear to be high technology, finance, business and
tourism (Castells, 1996).
Thomas Hinch (1996) details five major factors which he argues identifies the emergence
of cities as premier destinations. They are:
(i) the high population concentration that attract correspondingly high numbers of tourists
who may be visiting friends and relatives;
(ii) the sheer capacity of the cities to offer a variety of cultural, artistic, and recreational
experiences on account of their multi-ethnic composition of population, on one hand, and the size
to support such activities on the other;

2
(iii) being focal points of commerce, industry and finance these cities excel as major destinations;
(this is so crucial as many medium and small country towns in many western countries struggle to
develop a profitable tourism industry as they san these facilities despite having breath-taking
tourist attractions)
(iv) as transport distributary nodes, cities act as gateways and transfer points to other
destinations; and finally
(v) cities harbour people services such as health, education, government and religion. These
services are in many ways crucial to the success of a tourism industry.
The urban tourism product is a key factor, which attracts and can cater to the demand of visitors.
Thomas Hinch (1996) in his modified version of the Jansen-Verbeke model attempts to explain the
elements of an urban tourism product (fig-1) based on the Jansen-Verbeke ‘s model (1986).

PRIMARY ELEMENTS SECONDARY ADDITIONAL

( Attractions) ELEMENTS ELEMNTS
( SERVICES) (INFRASTRUCTURE)
Activity place Leisure setting • Hotel & catering • Accessibility &
Cultural Physical
facilities parking facilities
facilities characteristics
(i) Concert • Ancient • Markets • Tourist facilities
halls monuments
• Shopping • Information
(ii) Cinema • harbours
s • Parks & facilities offices, sign
(iii) Exhibiti green areas
posts, guides,
ons • Water, canals
(iv) Museu & river fronts maps & leaflets
ms & Socio-cultural
art features
gallerie • Folklore
s • Language
(v) Theatre • Local
s customs
Sport Facilities • Friendliness
(ii) Indoor • Liveliness
& out • Security
door
Amusement
facilities
(i) Casinos
(ii) Festival
s
(iii) Organis
ed
events
(iv) Night
clubs
Elements of the urban tourism product ( based on Jansen-Verbeke, 1986)
(T.Hinch, 1996).
Approaches to urban Tourism: Geographical Analysis:
Urbanisation is a double edged sword, on the one hand it contributes to the development
of towns and cities in its to living, working and relaxation, and on the other, it creates
unmanageable population density, traffic snarls, pollution and those places constant
demand on the addition and renovation of its basic functions and services. Although

3
modern urbanisation is largely characterised by industrialisation, the evolution of
historical cities of the European and Asian continents have largely characterised by their
distinct patterns of cultures and civilisation. According to Ashworth & Turnbridge (1990)
‘The renaissance of the sixteenth century had rediscovered the Mediterranean Classical
world and the eighteenth – century Enlightenment made it fashionable, among the better
educated classes in Northern Europe, to visit, value and support the preservation of its
surviving architectural relics’.
To understand the importance of urban tourism, one has to take cognisance of the fact
of why tourists seek urban experiences. Shaw & Williams (1994) attribute this to the
concentration of facilities and attractions that are conveniently located in urban areas
and provides to meet the expectations of the tourists and residents alike. In many ways,
the concentration of attractions and services in a compact urban place weighs heavily on
the minds of the average ‘psycho-centric’ and ‘mid-centric tourists of to day when they
are choosing which destinations they will travel to. Urban areas are definitely better
placed than most disparate regional/rural tourist attractions in this aspect. They offer
unlimited choices and alternatives to a fastidious tourist (C.M. Law, 1992). Perhaps this
aspect needs to be included when drafting or implementing master plans for the
amelioration of cityscapes.
Being the repositories of various cultural and heritage attractions, cities in general, offer
multifaceted opportunities to casual and business travellers alike. The availability of
attractions and the reliability of services make such urban centres those most sought
after as tourist destinations in the world. Another important observation about urban
tourism is that in the last four or five decades, ‘mass tourism’ is considered to be the
single biggest factor in changing the character of many urban places in Europe in
particular (Jansen-Verbeke 1985, 1986, 1987).
Urban Tourism and Urban Economy:
Although tourism is an integral part of every urban place it is only recently, that in many
parts of the world, has it been recognized as a vital component of the urban economy
(Breheny, 1992; Roseland, 1992). It is only over the past two or three decades or so,
that many urban places in the developed world have become more livable and enjoyable
tourist destinations in contradiction to being more industrialised and less historical. Cities
such as Melbourne and Sydney in Australia are good examples. As state capitals, they
slowly emerging from the stage of manufacturing centres to service centres and the
contribution of tourism in this overall process has been immense in the last two decades
(Bill Richards, 1992). Today there is clearly international competition between famed
international cities in bidding for important hallmark events such as Olympic Games.
Cities that are successful in their bidding to host these hall-mark mega-events, tend to
use these opportunities to re-vitalise their urban economies by converting many of these

4
developments into tourist attractions (Tourism New South Wales, 1996). This is evident
in that many of the recent urban development endeavours such as ‘Olympics 2000’ focus
on tourism promotion.
Urban places can also be very effective focal points for disparate social and cultural activities and
this particular flavour enhances their tourist image (Stephen Page, 1995). The success of tourism
as an industrial sector in its own right has prompted many city governments in Europe, Anglo-
America and Australia to develop larger more feasible and state of the art convention centres,
hotels, stadiums, airports, performing art centres, dock land developments, casinos and
rejuvenated special events (Haywood, 1992).
Tourism and Urban Regeneration:
Although Walter Christaller (1963/64), has initially claimed that urban residents seek
recreation in non-urban areas that are peripheral to the city, his own theory of cental
places) suggests that urban areas can be expected to serve as major destinations. Many
researchers of urban phenomena have showed scant interest in tourism as an urban function,
rather they tended to view sport and leisure activities as the prime base for classifying towns and
cities as resort centres and tourist cities (Ashworth, 1992; Ashworth & Turnbridge, 1990). While
doing this, they ignored the very resort function that exists in many cities all over the world
(Thomas Hinch, 1996).
Tourism has traditionally been considered a function of historic cities and towns, and the tourism
potential of large cities and industrial centres had been largely ignored until the 1980s. The
research literature has been patchy, but since the middle eighties, tourism has been perceived as
having important roles in urban economic and environmental improvements (Law, 1992).
These early observations were carried out in North American cities, due to the general decline in
their central CBD core activities that sapped the strength of their economic base. Shaw and
Williams (1994), observed a strong political and commercial lobby which shaped a new set of
policies to rejuvenate corporate interests inside the CBD in these North American cities. The urban
development policies formulated in cities such as Baltimore, (where there was considerable
compulsion to revitalise the run-down inner harbour area) (Law, 1991) focused more on prompting
the public to make use of the waterfront as a recreational and tourist attraction. This was made
possible by providing planning allocations for clearing the existing derelict sites; laying out a
waterside park; building the Convention and World Trade Centres; establishing a science museum
and erecting a harbour place shopping centre along with 12 new hotels in a span of ten years. The
prime reason for this simply emerged because tourism was considered as a growth industry,
providing jobs and could lead to environmental regeneration (Judd and Collins, 1979).

5
 Prospect of visitors
Public sector pump
priming

Marketing

New Image
Visitors

Income

Jobs

Population Increased
Other growth in inner civic pride
economic city
activities
Further Investment expand
Attractions
Environmental
Improvements

Physical, economic, and social regeneration

The process of tourism–based urban regeneration is outlined by Law (1992)

The North American example triggered similar developments in the UK as three reports
indicate namely, (i)‘The Banks Report, (ii) the Confederation of British Industries Report
and (iii) the Young Report, all of which have unanimously stressed the importance of
tourism’s economic role in rebuilding the waning urban economy (Shaw and Williams,
1994). These reports underlined the importance of the key elements of tourism (viz); its
labour intensive nature, its strong local economic multiplier effect and its low capital cost
of job creation. These observations made tremendous impact on many city authorities
and they in turn made use of the funds available from the English Tourist Board (Law,
1988). In 1989, the English Tourist Board launched its 5 year ‘Vision for Cities’ campaign
and formalised its links with central government’s ‘Action for Cities’ program. This move
incorporated four key elements in the English Tourist Board’s Vision for the Cities viz:
(i) Bring together partnerships of key public and private personalities.
(ii) Prepare an agreed comprehensive development framework.
(iii) Bring forward key development projects within the agreed framework.

6
(iv) Undertake a concerted and coordinated action program of environmental and
infrastructure improvements (Shaw and Wiliams, 1994).
The Australian Experience:
Australia is a highly urbanised nation in the Southern Hemisphere where more than 87%
of the population reside inside the metropolitan confines of the five major urban centres
of, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney (City of Melbourne, 1998). Over
60% of Australians live in metropolitan areas of over 100,000 and 40% live in the two
gigantic cities, Sydney and Melbourne (Buxton, M & Stanley J et al, 1995). Australian
urbanisation drastically differs from the traditional Asian and European models where
urbanisation largely grew out of the development which occurred in the rural
settlements. Australia was colonised from its littoral borders during its settlement years
hence the advent of the huge population concentrations around its seaboard were no
coincidence as it resembles that of United States. Australian cities are relatively young in
comparison with European and Asian cities and adequate care was demonstrated through
town planning strategies to include the aspects of rich European culture in their genesis
(Daly, 1998). In the last two centuries of evolution, agencies (public and private) that
have generally influenced development in the metropolitan cities of Australia have come
to realise the following features: viz
(i) cities are not simply centres of production but need to be repackaged as centres of
consumption;
(ii) cities need to have an image of their own, as the urban character of each settlement
seems to be unique;
(iii) there should be a growing healthy competition between state or industrial
capitals;
(iv) project their modern cities as obvious attractions to the domestic and
overseas tourist markets; and,
(v) create a forceful agenda for an urban entrepreneurialism to kick-start the
urban regeneration process (G. Waitt, 1999).
While most western cities are being re-shaped and restructured largely by the demands
of global capitalism, Australian cities are no exception (D. Harvey, 1990) to this rule. The
public and private agencies, in this case state governments and property developers
within Australia have joined as partners in the task of urban refurbishment. Property
developers in Sydney’s central industrial area, have demonstrated a determined interest
in shaping the economic base of the city around the ‘High tech’ industries, of the area.
Alternatively, NSW State Governments have facilitated the urban form of accumulation
emphasising consumption rather than production
Through number of regenerative projects such as the Finger Wharves of Woolloomooloo
and Walsh bay, Darling Harbour (Festival Place) Pyrmont, (Star City Casino) and host of

7
others (Waitt, 1999). Developments such as these were to an extent, ably supported by
local (city) governments in many parts of Australia. There is a well-coordinated
understanding, which exists between local governments, state governments, and public
and private tourism organisations. State and private organisational bodies (Australian
Tourism Commission, Tourism Council Australia, Department of Industry, Science and
Tourism, Commonwealth of Australia, Marketing and Convention Bureaus of capital
cities) that are directly responsible for promoting tourism, and taking part in this
coordination in order to make use of these regeneration efforts to benefit the urban
economy through increased domestic and overseas tourism. It is expected that the
Sydney Olympics would add an another 2.1 million overseas visitors, generating an
estimated $A16 billion (Waitt,1999).
The preparation of an attraction strategy (Attractions for the Future, NSW Tourism,
1996) in 1996 for Greater Sydney by Tourism New South Wales speaks volumes about
the involvement of state agencies to promote a better urban environment through urban
tourism. The detailed survey of 100 Sydney attractions has prompted a series of industry
consultations aims at boosting the image of the city for the 2000 Olympics. Similarly
Tourism Victoria, the state tourism commission had come up with a Tourism
Development Project for Greater Melbourne’ in 1997. This detailed study carried out by a
private consultancy group (KPMG) with the active involvement of Tourism Victoria,
Country Victoria Tourism Council Inc, Melbourne Convention and Marketing Bureau,
Parks Victoria, Tourism operators, local traders and the metropolitan Melbourne
community. The project study was funded by 10 metropolitan and 5 other Councils and
ably supported by the State Government of Victoria Community Support Fund. The
foregoing examples illustrate the thrust given to tourism as a major contributing factor
that could bring about changes in the micro/macro urban economy of cities and towns.
This project study has focussed on two essential objectives :(viz)
(i) to develop a profile for the broader metropolitan areas of Melbourne, building
on the strengths already marketed; and
(ii) to offer direction to Council in order to assist them in linking strategically
Melbourne’s identified tourism strengths and opportunities, and identifying
development opportunities outside inner Melbourne (TDP-Greater Melbourne,
1997)
In the broadest view, this project attempted to gauge the potential tourism product
opportunities in urban Melbourne that could build on the city’s existing strengths. This
form of identification was based on the city’s natural attractions, shopping, theatre, arts,
cuisine, conventions, exhibitions, and events.
The following table enforces the project’s key objectives.

8
 Melbourne’s main Attractions, year Ended 31 December 1995
Attraction Visitors Origin of Visitor %

Australia Overseas
Crown Casino 9,000,000 95 5
Queen Victoria Market 6,838,000 95 5
Melbourne Central 6,000,000 96 4
Royal Botanical Gardens 1,624,785 86 14
Melbourne Zoo 957,997 86 14
National Gallery of Victoria 569,889 93 7
Museum of Victoria 307,282 93 7
Science works Museum 268,707 97 3
St Pauls Cathedral 110,000 70 30
Old Melbourne Gaol(Jail) 96,897 66 34

Captain Cook’s Cottage 345,900 35 65

Rialto Observation Deck 644,257 79 21
Shrine of Remembrance 270,00 63 37
Werribee Park 79,710 90 10
Source: Tourism Development Project, City of Melbourne, 1997
The table underscores the significance of some of the urban tourist icons of Melbourne
equally patronised by domestic and overseas visitors alike. This strengthens the stance
for developing strategies in order to maintain the popularity of these icons by
refurbishing them in order to lengthen the life cycle of the tourism products that have
emerged out of these cultural and natural attractions.
These research endeavours were made possible through the release of Tourism Victoria’s
Strategic Business Plan 1997-2001 and this accelerated the tempo and has given birth to
integrated strategies which maintain tourism related developments inside the Melbourne
region.
With a direct employment share of 8.4 % in the national workforce, Australian tourism
contributed $A 16.5 billion to its national export earnings, and a 13% share of the total
export earnings in 1997 (DIST, 1998). It is no small wonder why City Councils and Shire
Councils vie with each other in order to make use of this as a tool to reinvigorate their
own economies and image.
In the overall general perspective, tourism has been viewed by North American and
European urban development policy makers as a major catalyst for urban regeneration.
Western cities clamour for slogans and images such as ‘international city’, ‘business city’,
‘high-tech city’ and ‘most livable city’ to indicate the vision with which they position

9
themselves in the international tourism markets (Jansen. V, 1989). Although some
question these slogans and images as ‘sheer hype’, they do help the urban economy to
realise its goals in the longer run (Ove Kalltorp, Ingemar Elander, Ove Ericsson, & Mats
Franzen, 1997 eds). In essence, the notion of projecting the city as a commodity to sell
to a wide audience has come to stay in all developed countries (C. J. Butler, A. Shachar,
J.V. Weesep eds, 1997). Of late urban tourism is recognised as one of the positive urban
planning attributes to keep ageing cities in shape and maintain appropriate style so that
their drawing power can remain constant (Maria V Gomez 1998).
Urban India:
However, in viewing Indian urban tourism development from this perspective, as an
instrument of positive urban regeneration it may not be as palatable to many in India as
the demand for the establishment of basic urban infrastructure is overwhelmingly high.
As the recent population statistics indicate, India no longer lives in villages, instead it is
expected that by the turn of this century nearly 305 million Indians will live in nearly
3700 towns and cities of India (http://urbanindia.nic.in/urbanindia/scene.htm). In
modest terms this comprises 30% of its total population and sharply contrasts with the
scenario of pre-independent India when a meagre 60 million inhabited the urban
landscape. During the last fifty years, the population of India has grown two and half
times, but Urban India has grown nearly five times
(http://urbanindia). India’s urban population is quite obviously larger than all the urban
populations of the world put to together. (barring China, Russia and United States)

India: urban Population 1901-1991

INDIA Urban population Percentage of Urban to Decadal growth
( million) total population rate (percent)
1901 29.9 10.8 -
1911 25.9 10.3 0.4
1921 28.1 11.2 18.3
1931 33.5 12.0 19.1
1941 44.2 13.9 32.0
1951 62.4 17.3 41.4
1961 78.9 18.0 26.4
1971 109.1 19.9 38.2
1981 159.5 23.3 46.1
1991 217.6 25.7 36.4
2001 306.9 30.5 41.0
Source: (http://urbanindia.nic.in)

10
Although in terms of numbers, the population figures may be overwhelming but in terms
of the quality of life and livability, the yardsticks mostly used by urban researchers,
Indian cities do not fare as well. Despite the serious urban planning efforts of the
successive governments, the primacy of the mega cities is still a force to be reckoned
with in midst of the modest challenge posed from the remaining 19 million cities.
Distribution of urban population by size class of towns
Size of towns Population Range No. of Towns Share of Urban
population
1 100,000 & above 300 65.20%
11 50,000 to 99,999 345 10.95

III 20,000 to 49,999 947 13.19%

IV 10,000 to 19,999 1,167 7.77%
V 5000 to 9,999 740 2.60%
VI < than 5,000 197 0.29%
All classes 3,696 100%
Source: http://urban india.nic.in/urbanindia/scene.htm 26 /5 /1999)
From the above table it is easily discerned that about 1/3 of Urban India lives in
metropolitan cities (million plus) and the number of such cities increased from 1 in 1901
to 5 in 1951 to 23 in 1991.It is estimated that the number will go up to 40 by 2001
(World Bank 1996).
The positive side of India’s urbanisation is the level of its contribution
to the national economy as against the rural contribution. The growth of employment (
main workers) in urban India during 1981-91 was recorded at 38% against 16% in rural
areas and 26.1 % in the country as a whole
(United Nations Development Program, 1995)
India’s Urbanisation and Economic Growth
Year % of Urban to total Estimated contribution
population to national income
1951 17.3 29
1981 23.3 47
1991 25.7 55
2001 30.5 60
Source: Source: http://urban india.nic.in/urbanindia/scene.htm 26 /5 /1999)

The figures shown above may well speak for the rapid growth of Indian cities and the
growing concentration of population in these centres in years to come. They also indicate
the economic potential available, at least in generating employment in different sectors
of the urban economy.
Before analysing the quality of Indian cities and their capacity to adopt the tourism
development policies enunciated in North America and Europe, it is essential to have a
glance at existing urban development policies of India.

11
India’s Urban Policies:
Since 1950, the urban development policies have come a long way.
The Five-Year plans of modern India have given sufficient emphasis to urban India’s
growing demand for shelter and institution building. During the First Five year plan
(1951-56) the concern was to establish organizations such as ‘The Ministry of Works &
Housing’, ‘National Building Organisation’ and Town and Country Planning Organization
to consider the emerging problems of unchecked urbanisation. The construction of
Chandigarh was an important milestone in this period. The Second Plan (1956-61)
incorporated three new schemes, namely, ‘Rural Housing’, Slum Clearance’ and
‘Sweepers Housing’. The Industrial Housing Scheme’, enunciated during the first plan,
was expanded to more states. The Third Plan focused more on the development of
‘Master Plans’ for major cities and state capitals such as GandhiNagar (Gujarat) and
Bhubaneswar (Orissa) were developed. Liberal assistance was provided to state
governments to acquire land to develop building sites in numbers. The Fourth Plan (
1969-74) saw to the establishment of ‘Housing and Urban Development (HUDCO) to
fund remunerative housing and urban development programmes in selected cities. The
major thrust of the urban development policy during this plan was to prevent further
growth of population in large cities and the creation of smaller towns through spatial
location of economic activities. In 1972/73, a central scheme to improve the
environmental conditions of urban habitat was mooted focussing on major improvements
to urban slums. The Fifth Plan (1974/79) comprised urban polices favouring the
development of small and medium towns and emphasising a comprehensive regional
approach to problems in metropolitan areas. The Urban Land Ceiling Act was a major
innovation policy of this period. The Sixth Plan (1980-85) conceived policies to create
more services for the urban poor. The major outcome was the launch of ‘Integrated
Development of Small and Medium Towns’ program to make provision for roads,
pavements, minor civic works, bus stands, markets, shopping complex in towns with less
than 100 000 population.
The Seventh Plan (1985-90) incorporated urban development policies to involve the
private sector in major urban housing projects. The policies saw a three-fold role was
assigned to the public sector, namely, mobilisation for resources for housing, provision
for subsidised housing for the poor and acquisition and development of urban land. The
important milestones of this plan were establishment of ‘National Housing Bank’ and
introduction of ‘Urban basic Services for the Poor’. The submission of a report prepared
by the ‘National Commission of Urbanisation’ during this period was very clear about the
impending dangers of uncontrolled urbanisation and its effect on the quality of livability
in India’s cities. The Eighth Plan (1992-97) on the grounds of the reports findings and
suggestions, recognized the importance of the urban sector for the national economy

12
(Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment, 1998). The Plan identified the following key
issues of the emerging Indian urban scenario :(viz)
(i) the ever increasing urban population has placed enormous pressure on the
accumulated backlog of urban housing thereby creating more slums and degrading the
city environment;
(ii) creation of widening gap, between the demand and supply with reference to basic
services like drinking water, sanitation, education and health, and shrinking the
opportunities for the urban poor in all spheres of urban development; and
(iii) creation of high incidence of urban poverty as 41.8 million urban people lived below
the poverty line (World Bank, 1996).
The newly formulated ‘National Housing and Habitat Policy’ in 1998 by the Ministry of
Urban Affairs and Employment, Government of India, attempted to look into the
desperate urban scenario created by the unchecked urban population growth. The report
proposed several strategies to create a better urban environment for all and to go along
with the national agenda ‘Housing for All’.
The strategies are :
(i) Understanding the fact that the state funding will never be adequate to create more
urban dwellings and services, the report suggested the unlimited participation of the
private sector in creation of these basic necessities of urban life.
(ii)To enable this participation, the report recommended the removal of legal, financial
and administrative barriers while accessing land, finance and technology for the non-
governmental initiatives.
The redeeming feature is the strong recommendation of the NHHP to involve the
Corporate, Private and Cooperative in a purposeful manner to create a more amenable
urbanisation than the existing one. The thrust of all these urban policies is to insist a
legitimate share for the private sector in alleviating the stressful urban environment.
It is not the intention of this paper to highlight all NHHP (1998) policies and guidelines to
all stakeholders here. Suffice to say that the policy indirectly paves the way for the
implementation and creation of tourism related functions and services inside Indian cities
as they were carried out in western cities.
In general, the policies aim to create more basic urban infrastructure and services to
create a better quality of life for its inhabitants. The same policies with alterations may
pave the way for similar initiatives in developing urban tourism related functions and
services. The public /private partnership understanding can well be extended to other
spheres of urban development such as creation or maintenance of tourist icons in side
the city or town. The already existing modes of ‘Private–Public-Partnership’ (PPP) may
also be extended to strengthen and revitalise the existing urban cultural and heritage
tourism.

13
The Tourism Potential of India: A Brief SWOT
India is a country with enormous potential for economic growth, with the world’s eighth-
largest economy and the tenth most industrialised country. It has a dynamic private
sector which needs capital and technology that can not be met domestically, and a
growing middle class, (roughly estimated at between 100 and 200 million), seeking
economic opportunity and better environmental conditions (World Bank, 1996).
National Income and Population
Year National Income Per Capita Income Population
( Rs. million) in Rs ( million)
1950-51 85,740 239 359
1960-61 142,420 328 434
1970-71 365,030 675 541
1980-81 1106,850 1,630 679
1990-91 4180,740 4,983 839
1993-94 6269,570 7,060 888
1994-95 7446,630 8,237 904
1995-96 8585,960 9,350,920 920
Source: (http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/littledata/14/5/99,11:42
Foreign exchange rates may cause these figures to look meagre and insufficient, but in
technical terms, India has progressed from abject poverty and industrial inactivity
caused by hundreds of years of colonisation and exploitation to prosperity. The
unchecked population growth has dwarfed the colossal progress achieved in several
spheres of economic growth. It has also to be noted that all this progress had taken
place in less than 50 years of continuous democracy. Very few non-European nations can
match India in this respect.
India has been gifted with nature’s bounty. It has an unrivalled coastline, impressive
mountain ranges, scenic valleys, rich forests, dazzling wildlife and splendid memorial
masterpieces. India has 90 million domestic tourists and 2 million overseas tourists and
India dreams of handling more than 5 million overseas visitors in year 2005 (The Hindu,
12/11/98). The recent incentives that have been accorded to the tourism industry in
many parts of India, proves that, finally public and private sectors have understood the
socio-economic potential of this industry for the general good of the country (The Hindu,
25/5/99). The status accorded to tourism in ministerial levels (in central as well as state
levels) earns kudos from all sides. The merger of National Airport Authority of India with
that of Airport Authority of India to create a Airports Authority of India in 1995 was a
worthy step towards improving the travel component of the gigantic industry. The up-
gradation of 20 airports has also given a boost to international tourism inside India.
In 1989-90, tourism created 5.5 million direct jobs and 8 million indirect jobs and earned
$ 800 million dollars in India (Govt of India, 1992). The earnings in 1998 stood at around
$3.17 billion dollars.

14
The National Action Plan for tourism (1992) outlined number of programs to boost the
well being of the country’s tourism industry. These include development of special
tourism areas, selected travel circuits and destinations, heritage hotels and paying guest
accommodation. To achieve its plan objectives, seven committees were initiated to look
after tourist accommodation needs, development of tourism infrastructure in identified
circuits and destinations, development of adventure tourism, marketing and publicity,
international aviation and tourism, domestic aviation and tourism and manpower
development of tourism.
The liberalisation of the economy since 1991 has prompted many overseas investors to
consider investments in India. The accommodation sector of the tourism industry (The
Hotels Association of India) utilised this by preparing a blue print for a ‘Tourism Export
Promotion Council’. It is laudable on one side, as most of the developments would take
place in urban environs and as secondary elements in urban tourism setting, they would
invigorate tourist traffic inside cities.
The growing middle class is a very good sign for the domestic tourism industry. Every
year many more with disposable income get involved in tourism and many prefer cities
as most of the travel circuits are based on historic and heritage city nodes.
However, India, still accounts for less than 0.4 per cent in international tourism and this
has become a challenge to its tourism industry. Surprisingly there was no mention about
making use of many of the urban amelioration projects (generally funded by
international agencies) to increase the destination’s potential.
The major frailty lies in the transport and visitor service sectors of Indian tourism
industry. It is purported that the non-starter of a civil aviation policy and the inability of
the national carrier to carry its share of traffic in bilateral arrangements severely affected
the overseas sector( The Hindu12/11/98). The hesitation to involve its counterparts from
the friendly neighbours in this mode of transport further impeded the international
arrivals. Perhaps in some ways these actions, inadvertently starve many urban centres of
India of their tourist incomes. The remarkable growth of road and rail networks since
1950 is a good sign for tourism industry.
States (000 kms) States (000 kms)
1975-76 1991-92 1975/76 1991/9
2
Andhra Pradesh 104 153 Madhya Pradesh 94 137
Assam 54 69 Maharastra 113 246
Bihar 93 88 Orissa 48 231
Gujarat 49 93 Punjab 40 56
Haryana 26 30 Rajasthan 56 123
Himachal Pradesh 18 25 Tamil Nadu 110 187
Jammu & Kashmir 14 14 Uttar Pradesh 192 223
Karnataka 101 136 West Bengal 54 59
Kerala 87 137 All-India 1249 2,065
Source (http://www.nic.in/indiainfra/chap.htm, 14/5/99 ,11:42)

15
States with urban tourism potential like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Orissa and
Uttar Pradesh have had their share of net work development through the years. It is
sufficient to say now that despite improvements, this sector, as a significant component
of the tourism industry, has not telescoped with the other two sectors of the Industry.
This particular achievement has been the mainstay of the success of the tourism industry
of many developed countries.
Several articles and monographs have been written with reference to India’s enormous
tourism resources both natural and cultural but very few have slanted towards the
management and marketing of the urban resources through urban development projects.
There have been editorials that totally deplore the way Indian tourism is being
administered in the first place (The Hindu, 28 /8/98). While the City States like Hong
Kong and Singapore can attract 10 million and seven million tourists a year, in good
times, it is disappointing that India could muster only two million (The Hindu, 17/7/98).
Recently, the Government of India has accorded the export house status to this huge
industry in a bid to boost foreign exchange earnings, employment and income generation
(The Hindu, 3/11/98). The year 1999, has been declared as the ‘Visit India Year’ with a
catchy ‘Explore Indian Millennium’ slogan. In 1998, Delhi, Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar
Pradesh and Rajasthan have registered encouraging international arrivals
(Jayant,The Hindu, 11/4/99). All of them have very important urban centres and three
out of the four mega cities of India are located in these regions. Hence, it is crucial to
consider the inclusion of urban tourism development policies in every tourism potential
urban region of India.
Conclusions
Urban tourism is not a new phenomenon in India since Indian cities have been well
known to the world for several centuries (Singh. S, 1992). But the old charm of many
Indian historical cities as well as modern cities has recently been replaced with the
rapidly increasing population with inadequate shelter, industrial pollution, slums,
desecrating encroachments on recreation spaces and historical monuments. Perhaps,
development of suitable urban tourism development policies within the frame framework
of ‘National Urban Policy’ might have a salutary effect. Shalini Singh’s earlier (1992)
study on Lucknow, stresses the need for an appropriate blending between tourism an
urban planning. Her observation is mainly about the reclamation of the green belt and
other heritage icons lost through the five decades of over population and illogical use of
scarce urban resources. She is not alone in her stand that urban tourism can revitalise,
rejuvenate and reconstruct the charisma of many Indian cities that have been lost or
hypothecated to over crowding and blight.
However, it is doubtful whether strict planning controls alone will be sufficient to bring
out the desired results. The following may be considered as alternative strategies along

16
with existing urban planning controls to increase the importance of urban tourism in
mitigating some of the problems that have come to stay with Indian cities.
Firstly, Indian cities of today, to a large extent, face problems that were encountered by
their western counterparts mostly in the last century. But this does not mean, steps
taken elsewhere in the western hemisphere in the years gone by would bring a about a
lasting solution now in India. The only advantage India has on its side is its large pool of
skills readily available and built through 50 years of quality education. Hence, it is not
difficult for central, state and local government authorities to modify their attitude
towards urban planning ie turning away from social and economic policies to benign
capitalistic approach whereby the available urban wealth can be put to practical use. This
is not a recommendation to drop the egalitarian planning policies hither to practised to
develop a sustainable urban environment in India. Instead, like the Australian and other
North American models where the federal governments stops with funding as well as
issuing policy guidelines, Indian counterparts too can think of bringing the disparate
entities that are responsible for solving the urban issues through workable policies. The
author had the experience of visiting a much sought after west coast tourist destination
of India in 1997 and had the occasion to witness the local Archaeological Survey of India
celebrating the ‘Heritage week’ without having a word with the Department of Tourism.
Secondly, large urban projects, undertaken with international aid, need to be viewed
along the lines of our first five year multi-purpose projects were shaped and carried out
to perfection. In this fashion even a slum clearance project can add an image to its
surroundings and this can be done only through effective local participation. Many urban
transport projects (such as city links and ring roads) inside Melbourne in these past
seven years have been carried out with a promise that the public would make good of
the money spent.
Thirdly, every million city down to class five town should attempt to have tourism
resource inventory to begin with to be incorporated later inside their prospective master
plans. As in the case, several action plans take shape once the value of resources is
properly studied and understood. Tourism planning for selected tourist destinations and
travel circuits do not bring about the desired results. This approach is still evident from
the recent steps taken by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department and the Kanyakumari
district administration to draw up a ‘Tourism Master Plan‘ (The Hindu, 25/5/99). It is
essential to upgrade and plan for the basic infrastructure through which the tourists
could easily access the resources with minimum ease. However, these approaches alone
may not be sufficient for tourism to be more effective, it needs strategic business plan
approach. There should be a provision for distinct commercial approach inside the
general infrastructure developmental plan.

17
Fourthly, urban regional tourism development plans should be viewed from the strategic
business plan perspective whereby the entire city region can be viewed as one product
region. This in turn enables the promoters (private and public) to identify and display the
products for promotion.
Fifthly, while taking the positive approach to boost the image of a city or a town through
urban tourism elements, adequate care needs to be built-in the process of planning. This
is very essential that over simplification and excess commercialisation of a city scape
may be counter productive in a country where more than half of the population live
under the poverty line. Marketing philosophies largely adopted by multinationals of today
to market their products, are being used by many developed countries to market their
cities in the international arena while bidding for hallmark events such as Olympics and
Commonwealth Games. However, the author’s intention is not to recommend such
approaches to develop urban tourism in Indian cities. Instead, while initiating basic
urban amenities through development projects, care needs to be shown to bring the
available tourism resources that are agglomerated inside the urban space easily available
to all through these projects.
Sixthly, India’s growing domestic tourism market buoyed by the emerging urban middle
class has the potential to sustain as well as pay for the very survival of these cultural
and natural resources.
Finally, urban tourism need not necessarily bring about a social or political discontent
through wrongly manufactured images in India. Many settled countries do indulge in
such controversial image marketing to boost their urban economy in the light of
globalisation of the world economy (Waitt, 1999). Most of Indian mega cities are
multicultural and multi-ethnic and this in itself is a great tourism resource to be
marketed. City planners and tourism industry people should take note of this great
asset. With 23 million cities and scores of second order, towns doting the country, urban
tourism in India should be seen as a tool for urban economic development.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, should explore the possibility of
developing strategies and policy guidelines to promote urban tourism in all million cities
of India. This promotion and the policy guidelines should have the facility to include the
Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment at all levels. The positive interaction between
several urban development agencies on one side and the tourism industry sector on the
other would certainly herald a new era for this much-neglected area of urban
development. There is no dearth for models to experiment with.
Limitations:
The author acknowledges the fact that he was unable to get hold of some of the data
pertaining to Indian urban tourism as well as the recent Government of India National
Tourism Action Plan. The non-availability of tourism data as well as policy documents

18
such as ‘National Housing and Habitat Policy, 1998 prevented deeper analysis into this
research. Had there been organisations such as Indian Bureau of Tourism Research,
Tourism Forecasting Council of India and Indian Tourism Commission existed , this
problem would not have arisen.
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