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In
2002, the Ministry of Tourism in India (MoT) initiated a
conscious effort to increase the tourist inflow into the
country.
The innovative campaign called 'Incredible India' campaign
helped increase the tourist inflow to India from 2.65 million in
2000 to 3.3 million in 2004.
But India with its diversity and huge tourism potential still
attracted far lesser number of tourists when compared to smaller
countries like France and Singapore.
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Experts felt that India had to solve its
infrastructure problems and undertake other capacity-building
initiatives to realize its full tourism potential.
In addition to problems such as poor connectivity,
high taxes, visa problems, unsanitary conditions, and shortage of
affordable, good quality accommodation, the treatment meted out to the
tourists by the various stake-holders of the tourism industry was also
not too great. Tourists were viewed as gullible victims who could be
easily duped.
The various stake-holders wanted to make a few quick bucks at their
expense. Generally, as soon as any tourists disembarked at any tourist
spot, a pack of touts would converge on them. Tourists could hardly
enjoy as touts were always following them around and pestering them
thereby causing much inconvenience.
This often left the tourists with a
bitter experience and a negative perception of India as a travel
destination. MoT realized that for tourism to prosper this attitude
would have to change.
In 2005, MoT launched a social awareness program
as part of the 'Incredible India' campaign, aimed at changing the
attitude of the people with respect to the way they interacted with
tourists. The program was named Atithi Devo Bhavah (ADB) or Guest is God
- which was in consonance with the Indian ethos.
The key components of the program were Samvedan Sheelta (Sesitisation),
Prashikshan (Training and Induction), Prerna (Motivation),
Pramani Karan
(Certification), Pratipushti (Feedback), Samanya Bodh (General
Awareness), and Swamitwa (Ownership).
The program involved training and
sensitizing the stake-holders such as taxi drivers, tourist guides,
operators, immigration officers, tourist police and others who
interacted directly with tourists. The campaign was rolled out in a
phased manner.
The first phase of the campaign covered tourist hubs, such as Delhi,
Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Goa, and Aurangabad. A mass media campaign
was also launched to transfer the ownership of the program to the
society as a whole.
A total of Rs 180.0 million had been incurred on the
ADB publicity campaign by 2005-06. MoT contended that the program would
lead to a huge increase in tourist inflow into India.
According to MoT, India experienced an increase of 45% in tourist inflow
during 2005-006 and 2006-007, and the foreign exchange earnings from
tourism had also increased by 62.2% during the same period.
Around 1.42
million tourists visited India in the first quarter of 2007 raising the
hope for another good year for tourism. MoT has hailed the ADB program
as being hugely successful.
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