Addressing a CII Roundtable on Adventure Tourism in New Delhi on Wednesday,Akshay Kumar, President, Adventure Tour Operators, Association of India, and CEO, Mercury Himalayan Explorations Ltd., highlighted the enormous potential of adventure tourism, and said that over a period of time, focus has shifted from hard-core to soft-core/ multi-activity based adventure tourism.

It is interesting to note that revenue from domestic tourists is much more in comparison to inbound tourists. Further, he emphasized upon safety and quality issues, and suggested to encourage usage of satellite phones. Since 70 percent of the Himalyan range is in India, and Incredible India Himalayan campaign is in place, industry should strategize to encourage adventure tourism activities during Off-Season and cater to tourists all round the year.

Pointing out the benefits of adventure tourism over conventional tourism, Arjun Sharma, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism, and Managing Director of Le Passage to India, said that "With the help of adventure tourism, we can showcase varied aspects of Indian culture as inbound tourists get an opportunity to closely engage with society".

According to him, there is need to devise ways to create more synergies for this sector, and for addressing the prevailing bottlenecks. Ajeet Bajaj, Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures Pvt. Ltd., said that nearly 90 percent of adventure tourism is concentrated in soft adventure tourism and recommended that multi-pronged approach to be adopted to promote and harness potential in a safe and sustainable manner. With a view to make optimal utilization of airstrips, he suggested that the defense airstrips should be allowed to be used for commercial operations. In his opinion, emphasis should be placed on Insurance aspect and opening up new institutions promoting multiple adventures sports besides mountaineering like rafting, canoeing, skiing, etc.

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