Table of Contents

Table of Contents...................................................................................................1 Introduction........................................................................................................... 2 Main Body.............................................................................................................. 2 Marketing............................................................................................................6 Monetary............................................................................................................ 7 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 9 References........................................................................................................... 10

Introduction
Tourism is an element of any countrys economy which plays an important part in the economic development of the country. India has been no exception in embracing tourism as tourist levels went from 16,829 tourists in 1950 to 2.6 million tourists in 2000 (Ashraf H.S., Fazili A.I, 2006). India as a country has portrayed a lot to the world in terms of its rich culture and heritage, art and literature, history, religions and the most sough after medicinal systems. The country being divided into 28 states with a government of its own and 7 Union Territories that are governed by the Central government has monuments, rivers, parks, exotic animals, wildlife sanctuaries, different religious interests and over 25 official languages. Bordered by the Himalayan Mountains in the north and a water body consisting of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal the country has a wide variety of tourism products and services to offer. Tourism, though resisting better than some sectors, has not been immune to deal with the potential impact of the current economic downturn on tourism. This report sheds light on some of the response measures that have been developed by the Indian government and the Ministry of Tourism in India.

Main Body
The word tourism has its origins in a Latin word Tornos meaning a tool for describing a circle or turners wheel. Tourism consists of tourists who are those who visit a region for at least one night to less than a year, whose main purpose of the visit is other than earning money against what he expenses with the region her/she visits (Bezbaruah M.P., 2000). According to the annual report of 2010-2011 by Ministry of Tourism in India, tourism is an important sector of the Indian economy contributing heavily to the countrys GDP and FEE (Foreign Exchange Earnings). The first conscious and organized efforts to promote tourism in India were made in 1945 when a committee was set up by the Government under the Chairmanship of Sir John Sargent, the then Educational Adviser to the Government of India (Krishna, A.G., 1993). However tourism gained an upbeat momentum during the 80s when the National Policy on tourism was introduced in 1982 and after which the role of the national and central governing bodies were recognized in the development of tourism. The FEE gained from tourism in the year 2010 were 64,889 crore Rupees as compared to 54,960 crore during 2009, registering a growth rate of 18.1%. The growth rate in FEE from tourism during 2009 over 2008 was 8.3%. This figure was achievable by the Indian
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government with the Incredible India campaign started in 2002 for marketing India as a destination to the world. India is a country that enjoys the position of being known for various aspects. The Indus-valley civilization and the Aryan civilization and the founding of the Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha medicinal systems are few of the oldest known systems and hail from India. Along with the cultural heritage of the country, India has been a centre of exclusive architecture, handicrafts and clothing. The Government of India drew up a National Tourism Policy in 1982 which envisages new initiatives towards making tourism the catalyst in employment generation, environmental re-generation, development of remote areas and development of women and other disadvantaged groups in the country, besides promoting social integration is, therefore, vital to our economy. This would in turn create conditions for more foreign investments and lead to an increase in the foreign exchange earnings. The tourism policy of India was written out to foster understanding between people all over the country, create employment and bring about socio-cultural benefits to preserve and strive towards sustainable tourism. For this to take place the Government of India had taken initiative and measures in the fields of fiscal, monetary, public-private partnerships marketing and regional cooperation .Few of these initiatives will be discussed and analysed in the following report.

Public-Private Partnership.
A public private partnership refers to a contract or an agreement between the government body on one side and a private sector company on the other hand to deliver tourism products and services in this case. Infrastructure development is one of the key points that lead to Indias growth in the tourism sector. According to the annual report for the year 2010-2011 of Tourism ministry of the government of India, the ministry has been able to sanction 26 out of 38 mega tourism projects all over India and financial support was given to the different State Governments for the development of infrastructure at places of national and international importance. As a result a mutual agreement between the government body and the private sector was required to finance, design, implement and operate infrastructure products and services previously provided by the public sector. The tourism ministry is working with the different states in the country to provide emphasis on the construction and up-keeping of the wayside amenities along roads and highways leading to tourist attractions, keeping the tourism sites clean and development of tourism in backward areas throughout states. This

plan in the annual report is carried out according to the guidelines from the National Tourism Policy of India which says:

Encouraging Panchayati Raj Institutions (the village bodies), local bodies( town or city bodies), religious trusts, co-operatives, and other community level institutions to take up tourism promotion activities through the general rural development and employment generation programmes and specific rural tourism development schemes.

Encouraging non-governmental organizations to create and manage tourist facilities. India is home to numerous national parks and other tourist attractions that are part of nature. The government of India encourages private sector bodies to create environmental awareness amongst the local and tourist population.

In 2009, the Government of India brought out a scheme called the Assistance for Large Revenue Generating Projects under which the public private partnership projects were eligible for assistance by the tourism ministry of India. According to the SME Times News Bureau, the government would provide a subsidy of up to 50 crore Rupees or 500 million for the PPP projects. Public-private partnerships in India are highly necessary to improve conditions such as inadequate accommodation, road infrastructure, lack of amenities at tourist attractions, adventure tourism and tourist trains. The tourism ministry has created and put in place effective monitoring strategies for tourism infrastructure projects in all states in India by setting up State Level Monitoring Committees. An initiative called Visit India Year 2009 was launched by the Government of India to woo tourism into the country in 2009 in an effort to revive the declining tourist arrival into the country after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008. The Tourism ministry of India joined hands with the hotel, travel and airlines companies in India to bring about this initiative. The initiative was the first one of its kind where the government bodies and the private sector came together to increase the inbound traffic of tourist to India after a terror attack. The Visit India Year 2009 brochure marketed by Incredible India provided details and emphasized on offering value for the best price to foreign travellers and promoting the country as a complete destination to all tourists. The scheme worked on the principle of additional incentives being offered to tourists visiting India during April-December of 2009. Some of it included: Complimentary international air passage for travelling companion One night complimentary stay in the hotel/resort booked by the tourist
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One complimentary local sightseeing tour in the city visited by the tourist One complimentary rural eco-holiday in the country

The scheme worked on a provision of something complimentary to any deal or service the tourist paid for while visiting India. This incentive was worked out by agreement between the government, state and the private sector bodies involving travel, hotel and tour operators. The Hotels Association of India and Indian Association of Tour Operators took part in the initiative to pull in the international Traffic. The airlines companies which took part included the government owned Air India, Jet Airways owned by Naresh Goyal and Kingfisher Airlines owned by Vijay Mallya. Back in 2008, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines joined hands to become Indias leading airline market player. The airline schemes in the Visit India Year 2009 included:

Air India: Companion free scheme Complimentary domestic two-coupon round trip ticket

Jet Airways: Companion free offer Discounted fares on business and economy class

Kingfisher: Companion free offer Best operating fares and schemes on domestic travel

The Hotels associations of India had value additions that included: Stay one night and get second consecutive night free Stay two nights and get the third consecutive night free Stay three nights and get the fourth consecutive night free

According to Euromonitor International, the reduced prices and the public-private partnership scheme of Visit India Year 2009 failed to attract customers. Hotels saw numbers reduced by 25-35% while airline companies had to reduce ticket prices even further. This led to staffs being laid off while deep discounting, rise in fuel prices and high airport charges left the aviation industry in trouble resulting in further difficulties. However, according to a report by Euromonitor, the only positive side of the whole scheme was the proper use of the Jet
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Airways-Kingfisher alliance by joint fuel handling management, ground-service handling and cross-selling flights.

Marketing.
In tourism, the greatest role is played by the destination. Whether it is the Taj Mahal in Agra or the Great Wall of China, it is the destination which is the final influence on the decision to visit a place (Dasgupta D., 2011). India enjoys a lot of foreign visits mainly by tourists from USA (15.4%), UK with 14.7% and Bangladesh with 10.06%. To allocate the growth of tourism in India over the past decade and to keep up with the changes in marketing India as a tourist destination the Ministry of Tourism launched the Incredible India campaign in 2002 promoting India to the world. Incredible India was conceptualized in 2002 by V Sunil and Amitabh
Kant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. The campaign was a communication tool used by the

tourism ministry to portray India as a vacation spot by highlighting the countrys culture, art, literature, history, spirituality and the medicinal side of India. Marketing India o the world through the extensive use of TV advertisements, print ads and posters all around the world, the campaign tried and still tries to promote India as the royal, luxurious and relaxing destination for tourists. However the campaign has stuck to the same theme and style of exhibiting
India to the world and time has come for the campaign to be re-invented. However the Incredible India campaign has bagged a few awards since its launch including:

PATA Gold Award for best Print Ad Campaign and PATA Gold Award for Best Destination Marketing Campaign. 2007 World Travel Awards -World's Leading Destination Marketing Campaign. 2006 World Travel Awards -World's Leading Travel Destination Television Commercial. 2010 World Travel Awards - World's Leading Destination Marketing Campaign "Incredible India" India Tourism.

According to a newspaper report by Kelkar R., the he Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce in India (FICCI) have come up with some measure to make the Incredible India live up to the image : Develop India as a 365-day tourism destination by marketing alternative tourism products
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Enhance road and rail infrastructure at tourist destinations Public-private tourism projects need to spread to many other states around India Use of the internet to put up adequate information in local and international languages and online booking facilities.

The last point about the use of web-sites to promote tourism has been used well by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. The IRCTC uses their website (www.irctc.co.in) for booking railway tickets in India. However, this is not the only service offered as the websites key initiative is to promote tourism in India by providing ample information to potential tourist (Dasgupta D., 2011). The site provides detailed information about the destinations and also provides information about the big budget hotels. The website gives tourists the information about hotel-booking, tour planners, tour planners, package-deals and telephonic booking. Basically, the website is a one-stop for the needs of the tourist planning on traveling to places in India via the train. This initiative became success due to the firm business plan and the flawless execution of the plan. According to an article by Vivek Jain for the Hindustan Times, the reporter boasts about the IRCTC success story which has become an inspiration for the entire e-commerce portal in India. Some of the reasons behind its success were: Cheap and convenient Online booking allowed the tickets to be mailed directly to the doorsteps of the customers at a very low service charge. Easy to navigate web interface The website offers the customers to customize his or her train options based on start and end stations, desired dates, routes and possible fare classes. Athithi Devo Bhava or The Guest is God is another initiative taken by the Ministry of Tourism and the Incredible India campaign to boost tourism in India with the idea that tourism would be the catalyst to the countrys economic growth. The initiative aims at creating awareness in the minds of the population about preserving Indias rich culture and heritage and warm hospitality. Hygiene and cleanliness, conduct and behavior, integrity and honesty and safety and security are the main components that the campaign aims at making the people aware of.

Monetary.
Over the years since tourists first started coming to India, the countrys Tourism ministry has wanted to find and promote exotic locations in India to the Western tourists. Soon, the
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different states within the country wanted to develop and use tourism to its full potential and one example would be the state of Kerala which diversified in the supply of tourist services. The state government provided funding for the newly found heritage tourism, where tourists were allowed to stay in nicely situated heritage buildings and provided the famous Ayurvedic treatment. According to Bhagavatula et al. varied packages including nature, local tradition and culture, heritage and relaxation were developed by a rapidly increasing number of entrepreneurs. Inevitably, with the widespread discovery of their potential, all such bits of special tourism have spread over other parts of India and have become ordinary fare in Kerala. According to 11th five-year plan, the government is spending $ 12,000 for single local event and $ 24,000 for national events some of which include: Kerala travel mart Indian international boat shows Mystics of Malabar Nishagandi dance and music festivals (Onam, Christmas, Ramsan etc) Keralas initiatives in promoting South India Participation in international and national tourism marts World travel mart London International road shows

Another new tourism product introduced by the Ministry of tourism is the new concept of River Cruise and according to Incredible Indias annual report of 2009-2010 the main projects sanctioned are as follows :

Development of Brahmaputra River front and Cruise vessels on Brahmaputra River in Assam for Rs. 365.52 lakh in 2006-07;

Development of Circuit on rivers Godavari and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh for Rs. 425.95 lakh in 2007-08;

Development of Ganga Heritage River Cruise in West Bengal in 2008-09 for which Rs. 2,042.35 lakh has been sanctioned and Rs. 1,021.18 lakh has been released;
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A mega project for integrated development of infrastructure for Heritage and Hinterland Tourism in Goa including Mandovi and Zuari rivers with a sanctioned amount of Rs. 4,309.91 lakh to the State Government of Goa in the financial year 2008-09.

The Commonwealth Games of 2010 was Indias chance of regaining the stardom in the world after getting a chance to host an international event. The annual report of 2010-2011 says that the Ministry of Tourism provided a central finance assistance of 40.14 crore Rupees to the Delhi government for the illumination of public monuments, amenities and parking. The Ministry of Tourism trained Guest House owners and staff of licensed Guest Houses in Delhi through the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, New Delhi to improve the skills and knowledge. The government funding and efforts resulted in the following outcome:

9,009 additional rooms available in Delhi for the CWG 2010. India Tourism Development Corporation upgraded and managed 1,287 housing flats for housing the staff of the games

2,199 Incredible India Bed and Breakfast /Home stay units were ready and available during the Games

The Ministry of Tourism has an initiative, introduced in 1989 called the Rahul Sankrityayan Paryatan Puraskar Yojana to award books written originally in Hindi on subjects related to Tourism. Under this scheme three prizes of 20,000, 16,000 and 10,000 Indian Rupees respectively and one consolation prize of 6,000 Rupees, are given. For the year 2009-10, entries have been received. This is part of the governments implementation of the official language in the promotion of tourism in India.

Conclusion
The world economy has faced an unprecedented crisis leading to severe recession around the world and it has affected the international travel tourism and hospitality sector heavily. India as a nation has a lot to offer the tourists from around the world and the Ministry of Tourism has taken some measures over the past decade to overcome the economic crisis in the country. The report went through the measures regarding public-private partnerships, marketing and monetary measures taken by the government of India to regains Indias stance
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as a country providing a perfect tourist vacation. The annual reports from the Incredible India campaign shed light on the vital public-private partnership program of Visit India Year 2009 which offered a value addition to any service tourists signed up for in India by providing complimentary incentives. The campaign didnt go well as tourist levels dropped due to the safety and security reasons in the aftermath of the 26/11/08 Mumbai terror attacks. However the IRCTC website which allowed tourist to get an insight into locations they wish to travel to while booking tickets was a great success story. In terms of marketing, the tourism ministry did a great job by launching the Incredible India campaign which was used to market India as a country and its entire rich heritage along with it. Athiti Devo Bhava (Guest is God) campaign helped spread awareness of the importance of tourism amongst the Indian population. India was under the spotlight a few years after the worldwide economic crisis as the country got the chance to host the Commonwealth Games of 2010 where a large amount of financial assistance was given to refurbishing the city of Delhi, stadiums, equipments and accommodation. The three measures discussed above prove that India as a country has stayed immune to the economic crisis when compared to other countries around the world and promote the country as an ideal tourist attraction.

References

Middleton, V.T.C. et al., 2009. Marketing in Travel and Tourism 4th ed., A Butterworth-Heinemann Title. Dasgupta, D., 2010. Tourism Marketing, Pearson Education. Fazili, A.I. & Ashraf, S.H., 2006. Tourism in India: planning and development, Sarup & Sons.
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Roy, K.C. & Tisdell, C.A., 1998. Tourism in India and Indias Economic Development, Nova Science Pub Inc. Bezbaruah, M.P., 2000. Indian Tourism; Beyond the Millennium 1st ed., South Asia Books. Krishna A.G., 1993, Case Study on The Effects of Tourism on Culture and the Environment, RACAP Series on Culture and Tourism in Asia,

Jain, V., 2011. IRCTC - Atithi Devo Bhava - Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times. Available at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/WebServiceReviews/IRCTC-Atithi-Devo-Bhava/SP-Article1-734209.aspx [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Kelkar, R., 2011. What ails incredible India? 10 steps to boost tourist flow | Firstpost. FirstPost Economy. Available at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/whatails-incredible-india-steps-to-boost-tourist-flow-963.html [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Anon, 2009. Incredible India campaign wins World Travel Award - Times of India. Available at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-1110/india/28072422_1_incredible-india-incredible-india-world-travel-award [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Euromonitor International, 2010. Ravel and tourism India, Available at: http://www.siimt.com/work/sites/siimt/resources/LocalContent/774/4/tt_india_2010.p df [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Anon, 2009. MoT announces incentives for Visit India Year 2009 - Express Hospitality. Express Hospitality. Available at: http://www.expresshospitality.com/20090228/market10.shtml [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Anon, 2009. Public Private Partnership to promote tourism. SME Times. Available at: http://smetimes.tradeindia.com/smetimes/news/indian-economynews/2009/Dec/05/public-private-partnership-to-promote-tourism60605.html [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Planning Commission of India, 2010. Public Private Partnership to promote tourism. SME Times. Available at: http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/volume2/v2_ch7_5.pdf [Accessed November 20, 2011].
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Ministry of Tourism, 2010. Annual Report. Available at: http://tourism.gov.in/Uploaded/Tender/122820100633188.pdf [Accessed November 20, 2011].

Ministry of Tourism, 2011. Annual Report. Available at: http://tourism.gov.in/writereaddata/Uploaded/Tender/053120110313488.pdf [Accessed November 20, 2011].

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