TravTalk India Online Magazine
Sustainable tourism policy of the state will help disperse tourists to outskirts, reduce impact on environment and benefit locals, says Dr Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint MD, Directorate of Tourism, Maharashtra.
Hazel Jain
The Directorate of Tourism, Maharashtra, is keen on promoting unique things that the state has to offer to attract more international tourists. For instance, caves, says Dr Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint Managing Director, Directorate of Tourism, Maharashtra. “Out of the 1,200 caves in India, 800 are in our state. Sea forts are also unique to our state. We are also promoting adventure activities like paragliding at Kamshet and scuba diving in Sindhudurg, along with rural tourism as it will appeal to inbound travellers. We want to look at how foreign tourists are arriving into Maharashtra and how can we get them to stay longer. So, we have identified 10 long-stay circuits that we are promoting through roadshows, travel marts and familiarisation tours,” he says.
Sharing pre-pandemic figures, Dr Sawalkar says that it ranged from 45-50 lakh international tourists. But they stay for one to two days in Mumbai only and go on to other states like Goa or Kerala.
“Our aim now is to keep them within Maharashtra and encourage them to visit places like Aurangabad, Tadoba and the Konkan belt where they can stay for more than four or five days,” he added. Another sector that has been so far ignored in Maharashtra is creek tourism. Dr Sawalkar says, “We have four to five creeks in the Arabian Sea where we can introduce the houseboat concept.”
Beach shacks in state
“We have around 92 beaches. For that we have come up with a Beach Shack policy. We are the second state after Goa to have this. Under this policy, we are developing in first phase, eight beaches – providing the basic facilities like toilets, showers, changing rooms, lockers. Apart from that, there will be deck beds with umbrellas; we will also facilitate permission of F&B on the beaches through this policy. We have already identified the eight beaches, taken their possession, and the work is going on now. From September 2022, we will see the beach shacks come up,” Dr Sawalkar adds.
Since this is a coastal area, connectivity is an issue. Maharashtra has, therefore, proposed a coastal highway from Mumbai to Goa till the last point which will be Sindhudurg – on the lines of Samruddhi Mahamarg (highway) that runs from Mumbai to Nagpur. This work has already started, confirms Dr Sawalkar. “We are also promoting sea forts like Murud-Janjira. Konkan culture and its cuisine. To promote our destination, we have a 360 media plan. Last year also we spent around `48 crore for promotions. We have also gotten more aggressive on social media,” he adds.
Responsible Tourism policy
Speaking about future plans, he reveals, “We have created a Responsible Tourism policy for the state because we are seeing instances of over-tourism, land pollution and even water shortages in places where tourist footfalls are high – Lonavala, Ganpatipule and Mahabaleshwar and Matheran. We are seeing adverse effects of tourism in these places. For instance, in Mahabaleshwar, the local population is around 60,000. But around 25 lakh tourists visit the place every year. So, in the summer season, the locals are deprived of drinking water. There is a lot of traffic. So, this sustainable tourism policy will help disperse tourists to adjoining places, reduce impact on environment and channelise benefits to the local communities. This policy is ready; some government level decisions are pending. Hopefully we will release it soon.”
He adds, that the DoT is also coming up with a tour operators’ accreditation policy. “It is in the final stage and we will start offering it from July 2022. On registering with us, these operators will get a lot of benefits like presence on our website, participation in international and domestic roadshows with us, famils, use of our logo and ad incentives,” he says.
