A FICCI-YES BANK report has suggested a 10-point roadmap for sustainable growth of domestic tourism with the potential of the number of domestic visits going up from 851 million last year to close to 1 billion in 2012 and further to 1.3 billion in the next three years.

Domestic tourism visits have grown by over 10% during the last couple of years. The growth rate was 10.6% in 2010, 12.1% in 2011. In 2009, the rate of growth of domestic tourism was of the order of 15.8%, a year in which the global economy came under pressure due to the financial meltdown.

The FICCI-YES BANK roadmap underlines the need for developing hygienic budget accommodation, improving connectivity, repackaging products, forging  inter-state partnerships, niche-based capacity building, better accessibility to remote areas, educational trips, support to backpacking, provision of student discounts for events and festivals and  use of ICT-based tools to leverage product offerings.

The following are the detailed suggestions of the FICCI-YES BANK report: 

Develop Hygienic Budget Accommodation: While many budget accommodation options are available in the country in the form of youth hostels, dharamshalas, hotels etc., the cleanliness and hygiene standards are mostly below par. This is not only detrimental to the destination image, but also means that the tourist at the 'middle' of the value chain has to opt for higher categories of accommodation, implying that the expenditure on other principles of the product (sightseeing, shopping etc.) goes down, leading to skewed earnings. 

Improve Connectivity: This refers to both improving the infrastructure in terms of roads, rail networks etc., and providing a greater number of options in terms of services like buses, trains, flights etc. Many destinations in the country fail to realize their worth owing to poor connectivity options. Pahalgam, for instance, despite being a popular tourist destination, only has one bus service to and from Srinagar, even during the peak season with heavy spin-offs from Amarnath, forcing tourists to choose the much costlier rented vehicles.

Repackage products: Many tourism products/ destinations can be revived by introducing new elements. One that can be sighted as a successful initiative is the case of Madhya Pradesh, which revived the Bhopal-Bhimbetka-Delawadi-Bhojpur-Sanchi through the use of campervans.

Forge inter-state partnerships: For many states in the country, owing to geographical or demographical congruencies, it makes sense to collectively market as a destination, especially if one is targeting longer stays. The group of Northeast states, even though very diverse demographically, constitute a single unified geographical entity of the Himalayan ecosystem, and have common entry/ exit points.

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