Product diversification: Need of the hour?

While industry stakeholders believe that niche tourism products will increase foreign tourist arrivals to India, a section feels that it is necessary to reinvent and strengthen the existing offerings rather than venturing into too much diversification and losing focus.

Jatinder S. Taneja, Hon. Secretary, PATA India Chapter

Infrastructure is the most important and a key ingredient that will aid the growth of inbound tourism in India. Heritage is our key attraction and many foreign tourists travel to India to experience the historic and cultural abundance in the country. We should continue to focus on our strengths and promote them better to offer exciting opportunities for more travellers to come in. However, I also feel that we should develop alternate and niche tourism products alongside but not get digressed and lose our existing target group.

Ajay Chhabria, Most Trending Personality, India Travel Awards 2016, & Managing Director, In-time Travels

I feel sad about the fact that though India already has so much to offer, most of it is yet unexplored. Most of our tourism products are underutilised because of a lack of infrastructure and proper tourist facilities. There is nature, heritage, culture, wildlife and a plethora of historical palaces in India. I feel we need to reinvent what we have. For example, in Europe various ancient palaces and castles have been converted into hotels. This can be done in India as well where a heritage hotel may charge Rs. 30,000 per night but this stay will be more exotic than just taking a tour of the heritage property. I don’t think medical tourism is as cheap as we think in India but adventure activities can definitely be worked upon. Our focus should be to repackage and develop what we already have and present it to the world.

Harmandeep Singh Anand, Face of Innovative Tourism, India Travel Awards 2016, & Managing Director, Jagsons Travels

I think we should focus on developing the unexplored parts of India and look at niche tourism products. Tourists have already been coming in for the Golden Triangle tour but if we wish to increase repeat visits, we need to engage the tourist in more than one aspect of India. For example, if people visit the central region of India, I would rather prefer they visit Nagpur and not go to the usual Mumbai or Pune. They can also explore the region in Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and Jharkhand. These new destinations need to be marketed properly. Infrastructure is not the only reason why someone would like to visit a destination. It is about the experience of the destination. Yes I agree basic facilities are needed to enhance that experience but it is not the sole necessity.