TRAVEL AND TOURISM
1. Introduction
Travel and tourism is the world's largest industry and generates 10.3% of
global GDP and is estimated to reach 500 billion US Dollars by 2029. Over
the past decade, this sector has not shown any sign of slowing down
instead has grown as an important sector and a major contributor of
foreign exchange (Kant, Citation2020). Unlike other sectors which can be
defined under one clear category, it is extremely difficult to categorize
tourism because of its incorporation, interdependence and interaction
with many industries like lodging, transport, culture, and other business
sectors. In the recent survey by Niti Aayog it has identified more than
500,000+ heritage sites and monuments in India and around 30 (of 38)
cultural heritage sites are declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO,
and approximately 3,691 monuments are taken under the custody of
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and are declared as monuments of
national importance (Niti Aayog, Citation2019).
Cultural tourism is one of the biggest attractions for the tourist and it is a
known fact that many travelers who plan to visit India focus their trip on
cultural tourism. And even if it is not solely for cultural; it is always a part
of their package as a byproduct. We can always say that cultural tourism is
always an unintentional part of every tourism destination. India with such
a diversified cultural spot and a large treasure of cultural presence can
create an unmatchable mark on the global destinations if handled and
taken care properly. As a developing country India has already started
making remarkable progress and creating an impressive impact, with a
collaborative effort of all public and private to enhance all the sectors at
the same time with due importance to each developmental plan. Further
digitalization is also one of the major enhancements, which is creating a
space for India on the global map. The sustainability of cultural tourism
keeping in mind the new era of digitalization it is a challenge for a country
like India to focus on both the ends and give fruitful results(Hardy, Beeton,
& Pearson, Citation2010), (Katsoni, Vicky, Stratigea, Anastasia
(Eds.), Citation2016),(Katsoni, Vicky, Segarra-Oña, Marival
(Eds.), Citation2019). This paper will explore the initiatives that have been
taken to make these two ends meet and create a new zone of sustainable
tourism through retaining the cultural presence and digital
transformation.
1.1. Literature review
“Cultural Tourism as a Business Model in India” by Raja Sarkar explores
how cultural tourism can be a business model and analyses the
challenges. It showcases that the tourist all over the world still continue to
view India as a cultural tourism hub and hence India has a great potential
to be a source of tourism growth.(Sarkar, Citation2018)
(Goh & Nagalingam, Citation2009) research work entitled “Sustaining
Cultural Tourism Online: Video Documentary as a Digital Media Content”
aims to establish the relationship between digital media and cultural
tourism in the Malaysian context. It provides an insight on the tourism
industry and its digital initiatives to transcend its culture. It illustrates the
making of a video documentary and online product package to enhance
cultural tourism and its sustainability in Penang.
“Success of Digitalization in Tourism Industry in India” by
(Shigaonker, Citation2018) explores the concept of digitalization in travel &
tourism, and how mobile, online travel portal and social media are
creating an impact and further discusses the challenges faced by them.
Rathi in his work on tourism in 2018 (Rathi, Citation2018) titled “Digital
Transformation of Travel & Tourism in India” explores how technology is a
driving factor for the travel industry. He goes on to discuss how Artificial
Intelligence (AI), Big Data, mobile applications, social media and Virtual
Augmented Reality have become a normal accepted term in this sector
and how the customers are benefited by it.
Improving heritage management in India, a working group under the
chairmanship of CEO, NITI Aayog has been created by the Prime Minister’s
Office (Niti Aayog, Citation2019) is a comprehensive summary of work
done, planned to protect and preserve natural heritage of India, and
develop possibilities of enhancing tourism and sustainable cultural
heritage .
L.A.Koziol, R.W.Pyrek in their paper “The Concept of classification of
Tourist Motivation Factors” present their general view on the motivational
factors that influence Tourism, and how these factors can lead to the
development of such places as tourism destinations.(Koziol &
Pyrek, Citation2014)
2. Background of the study
2.1. Journey of Indian tourism and its cultural sustainability
to the future
With a very appropriate quote regarding India by one of a famous German
scholar “If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most
richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can
bestow—in some parts a very paradise on earth—I should point to India”
by Max Muller, we could not agree less.
India is a land of diversified culture, finest architectural heritage,
remarkable landscapes and spectacular beaches and mesmerizing
mountain ranges. Indian peninsula is categorized into four regions,
Mountain Zone, Plains of Ganga and Indus, desert region and southern
peninsula. With a total area of 32, 87,263 sq. km, this extends from the
snow-covered Himalaya to the tropical rain forests down south. Being the
seventh largest country in the world, India has a very unique presence and
existence from other countries. India offers a vast range of tourism
choices, with diversified culture, heritage, tribes, cuisine, faiths, art and
craft, land and nature, people, adventure, sport, spirituality, history to
name a few. It is surprising that one can experience the change in culture
within 50 km distance.
2.2. Evolution of tourism sector in India
The very first step towards sustainable tourism was through National
Tourism Policy in 1982, when the then government formulated a
comprehensive plan in 1988 to promote tourism. By the year 2000 major
states in India declared tourism as an industry and its contribution as a
part of the development parameter. It promoted private—public
partnership in this sector and established sustainable hotel industries.
New national policy on tourism was announced in 2002, focusing on
developing a robust infrastructure and coexistence of multiple sectors for
economic growth (tourism.gov.in), (incredible India tourism, Citation2020).
This was the time when online travel portals & low-cost carrier airlines
were introduced and gave a boost to domestic tourism. Since 2015, the
government has introduced various schemes and marketing strategies to
promote this sector and generated employment opportunities .
The latest draft of the new National Tourism Policy has been approved
which includes ten strategic pillars as shown in Figure: The policy ensures
visits and revisits of tourists and exclusively promotes domestic tourism.
Apart from the general reasons of visiting interventions for cultural sites
along with medical & wellness, Business, Adventure, Wildlife and so on are
also induced. The policy plans to develop core infrastructure (airways,
railways, roadways, waterways, etc.) (Baken & Bhagavatula, Citation2010).
2.3. Growth drivers for cultural sustainable tourism and
digital transformations
India is one of the very few countries which enjoys such a diversified
Culture, weather, geographical presence. If we go with the facts, India’s
tourism Industry is the third largest foreign exchange earner after
garments, jewelry and gems. India’s contribution towards travel and
tourism GDP stands as the eighth largest in the world. Being one of the
largest service industries, tourism is an integral part of Make in India
initiative.
In the year 2018, the total number of domestic tourist visits within the
states and Union Territories stood at 1854.93 mn with an annual growth
rate of 11.9%. Further, as a value addition to this India registered 10.90
mn Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2019, registering an annual growth of
3.2%. This upward trend also indicates that nowadays travellers are
interested in numerous shorter holidays throughout the year, which is
again a driving force for travel products and services throughout the year.
The five year comparative data can be visualized in Figure 1
Figure 1. Foreign Torist Arrival and Foreign Exchange Earnings (2015-2020)
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Chart 1. Foreign tourist arrival and foreign exchange earnings (2015–2020)
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Chart 2. World heritage sites in India
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Chart 3. India’s homegrown all-stars of online travel
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The World Heritage List has identified around 30 cultural sites under its
listing (Figure 2). There are 3,691 monuments/sites under the protection
of the Archaeological Survey of India. UNESCO has always emphasized
that no development can be a sustainable development if it lacks Cultural
components. Further, to ensure that retention of culture to be an integral
part of all sustainable development policy hence started promoting
cultural diversity. In India, some of the prominently identified sites are:
The Taj Mahal at Agra, The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur, and Group of
monuments at Mahabalipuram, Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwell) at
Patan, Gujarat and latest to the list is the Jaipur city to the list. The Fig:02
shows the world heritage sites in India.
Figure 2. World Heritage Sites in India
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The Indian government in the last few years is constantly investing in
infrastructural development and are developing better roads and other
means of transport, clean and hygienic stay, which is a major factor for
boosting tourism.
At the Digital front, again India is one of the potential hubs for digital
databases with a significant consumer base and is continuously
generating a huge amount of data every day. Many hospitality players,
stakeholders are eager to invest in India with the latest technology and
better consumer mapping. Technology-driven site search, booking of
tickets, check-ins, biometric-based validation are other potential
upgradation of digital infrastructure which are again a course of customer
satisfaction. These, on the other hand, are creating digital revolution and
automating the tasks creating new job opportunities and advanced skill
implementation in interdependent sectors.
2.4. Challenges to the growth cultural sustainable tourism
and digital transformations
Being such an expanded country in the world it is difficult to initiate new
policies and implement a new system. Many initiatives are taken by the
Indian government, still face the challenge of inadequate infrastructural
constraints. The regular flow of funding along with the time framed
managed development are constantly disturbed.
The safety and security of tourists, both domestic and the international, is
also an important aspect that the government must undertake and work
towards it. The vast population and a diversified culture will not sustain
for long with people and the tourists visiting to explore the places and
have security issues. It also includes that many rural places which are rich
with cultural bliss often lack basic amenities like good hotel/home stay,
hygienic toilets & cafeteria, better food experience etc (ibef Reports).
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While most of the heritage sites and places of cultural prominence lie in
the semi-urban and areas away from the big cities, internet connectivity
and slower network access creates difficulty for the traveller to use online
support to book their travels (Figure 3). Moreover, low technological
awareness and available information online limits the accessibility to
access online resources. This, by and large, creates a lack of trust thus
discouraging online transactions and use of plastic money, e-wallet and
online payments in India. According to 2017 figures from the World Bank,
only 3% of India’s population use credit card and is ranked 111 on a list of
141 countries for credit card penetration.
Figure 3. India's Homegrown All-stars of Online Travel
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5.
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Many visitors to India find the e-visa facility a cumbersome one mainly due
to lack of awareness about the new e-visa policies and govt initiatives for
the quick processing (Table 1–4).
Table 1. Descriptive data
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Table 2. Places visited by the respondents During their travel
within India
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Table 3. Respondent’s Feedback on some of the parameters that
were given importace and were developed during last 5 years
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Table 4. Respondents Feedback on the place visited regariding how
it has safeguarded its cultural sites for a sustainable tourism in the
long run
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6.
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3. Research methodology
Through this study, the researchers attempt to answer the following
research question:
RQ: How can India sustain the concept of cultural tourism and increase its
contribution with strong online presence and highly interactive
digitalization?
In order to answer the above Research question, the following
objectives are being framed:
O1: To identify the stake of cultural tourism in India over other modes of
Tourism option and how it could be increased.
O2: To assess and identify the factors influencing the tourists preference
for cultural tourism.
O3: To identify sustainable measures to bridge the gap between the
tourists perception of available and actual resources.
O4: To assess the challenges in fulfilling the expectations of tourists.
i. The following Hypothesis is identified for this study
H01.There is no change or difference between feedback received from the
respondent on sustainable tourism and religious places.
H02. There is no change/differences between feedback for historical
places and feedback for religious places.
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7.
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H03.Feedback on sustainable tourism, feedback on historical Places and
feedback on religious places were considered and was found that this also
gave a similar response.
The researcher, for this study, has divided the country into six zones,
namely northern India, southern India, eastern India, western India,
northeast & central India. Data analysis has been performed on the
primary data collected using the questionnaire from the travelers who
travelled in these zones during the period of the study, i.e. 2015 to 2019.
For the result analysis various statistical tools like ANOVA (Friedman’s Two-
Way Analysis of Variance by Ranks), Pearson Correlation, Wilcoxon Signed
Rank Test were used.
The secondary data are extensively collected from various government
tourism reports, portals, books and authentic online resources like the
Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture etc.
3.1. Limitation
In a country like India with a very diversified cultural base considering
every cultural spot for this research was not possible, it has been found on
records of Government of India and Ministry of Tourism in their initial
survey that they have identified more than 400,000 heritage structures
across the country inclusive of the centrally protected and state protected
monuments, heritage buildings under various religious trusts, historic
cities and archaeological sites. Unlike other nations, India’s cultural
heritage shows continuity since centuries and are age-old traditions
practiced. It is very difficult to analysis and evaluate all or even many of
them. Hence, an overall average reports and overall response of the
respondent were considered who visited mostly the popular destinations.
Further, the parameters for measuring the sustainable development and
sustainable cultural tourism are very large in number; hence, only the
major space where the government of India has launched many
renovative and innovative schemes are considered for this research
paper.
Due to pandemic, for this research purpose, the physical verification of
records and footfall at actual destinations could not be collected; however,
the secondary data available online were considered from the
Government and reliable sources.
3.2. Data analysis and findings
1. The data collected were broadly categorised into three major
parts; the first part was a brief description of the respondent’s
demographic profile, which had basic details of the travellers
and how they are connected and interested in travelling.
Chart:01 shows that the respondents in the age group of 25–
50 years were interested in exploring the cultural diversity of the
country (India). The primary data suggests that responses of
male and female respondents are the same. Though the income
is not the major influencer for the tourist, however indicates
that the people with higher income are more liberal in spending
for travel. Most respondents belong to the metros and travel
atleast once a year.
2. The respondents travelling within India at one time or another
mostly visit places of historical importance or religious
importance, depicting Indian culture. It further reflects that even
if the initial planning of the trip is not focused on cultural
tourism, and most of them did not have cultural tourism as their
primary requirement, but ended up visiting places with religion-
connect and/or culture-connect.
3. Chart:02 categories the places the visitors’ visited during their
travel, for understanding it better the entire India was broadly
divided in different zones. Interestingly, it indicated the most
visited places were northern and southern parts of India. In that
too the major influences were the places with religious and
historical importance. It further explains that the eastern,
western, north east and central India are yet to be explored,
however even in these places the visitors to historic and
religious places are high as compared to other categories like
Places with national importance, Beaches and Wellness points
etc.
4. Being a developing country, India is also working towards the
overall infrastructural development and interdisciplinary
contributions of different sectors towards economic growth.
This study further tries to Explore the parameters on which
current developments are based like cleanliness, development
of basic Infrastructure, hygienic stay, frequency of the
transportation to any such tourist-centric location connectivity
of roads for better commute, better internet connectivity, access
and speed, etc. it was found that the visitors considered these
parameters as well which majorly influence the choice of
selection of the place to visit .
5. Moreover, parameters like approachability, infrastructure of the
city, support of local residents, cleanliness, transportation, stay
and hospitality, food, itinerary planning, information display at
the site, and internet connectivity, etc have a visible scope for
improvement as per the response shared by the respondents,
but they did not deny that the considerable efforts were done by
the government to make the facilities at par. The scope of
improvement still exists; however, with frequent changes to the
system it is difficult in keeping pace with technological
upgradation and seems to be challenging. This opens the scope
of further study on these parameters in specific.
6. The survey response from the respondent in their feedback on
sustainability show a positive outcome on the following
parameters like approachability to the place during the last few
years, infrastructure of the city, support from local residents and
awareness among the local population about the place and its
cultural importance, cleanliness and waste management,
connectivity of Airports and railway station, stay and hospitality,
food quality and local cuisines, itinerary planning of the
sightseeing, etc. Almost all the respondents felt that these were
well organized and each site was given its own value and
preference and the information display system at the site were
also very clear and relevant to the site, further on the digital
ground initiative to ease the internet connectivity, online
support and information system and e-visa processing
everything was streamlined in the recent years and the same is
reflecting in the responses from the respondents .
7. This study tries to find out whether the development initiatives
for promotion and support to cultural tourism are sufficient and
are on the progressive path. It was found that the
developmental initiatives had a positive impact on the tourist
and is certainly a sustainable solution for the economic
development as well as the tourism sector. New initiatives from
the Indian government, updated policies, private public
coordination to sustainable development were seen to be
implemented. Digitalisation and online presence were also
notably visible in recent government initiatives.
The feedback of respondents on sustainable tourism, religious places as
well as on historical places were also considered, studied and classified as
these can broadly be classified as the components of cultural tourism.
Below is the summarized report of three parameters on which the
correlation were tested and it was found that every parameter that was
tested gave a significant result and was about 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The correlation between respondents’ feedback on religious importance
places and sustainable tourism was calculated
Table
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Table
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Table
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3.3. Hypothesis test summary
H01:There is no significant difference between feedback on Sustainable
Tourism and feedback on religious places.
Table
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Hence, H01 is accepted and there is no significant difference between
feedback on Sustainable Tourism and feedback on religious places. It is a
clear indication that the parameters of sustainable tourism have matched
to a large extent with the facilities in religious places.
H02:There is no significant difference between feedback historical places
and feedback religious places
Table
Download CSVDisplay Table
Hence H02 is accepted and it is proved that there is no significant
difference between feedback historical places and feedback religious
places. In both historical and religious places, the respondents found
them to be at par with their expectations.
H03:There is no significant difference between the feedback on
sustainable tourism, feedback on historical and religious places.
Table
Download CSVDisplay Table
Hence, H03 is accepted. It is observed and validated that there is no
significant difference between the feedback on sustainable tourism,
feedback on historical and religious places.
Thus, all the three hypotheses were accepted; however, they indicate that
a positive correlation exists between the given parameters and that
improvement and upgradation in parameters would necessarily positively
affect sustainability and thus contribute to the tourism ecosystem.
4. Conclusions
This paper summarizes the tourism sectors that influence the Indian
Economy and its sustainable development goals. The identity of India in
general terms may be defined as a place which has a very rich cultural
presence as with every 50 km distance one can experience a different and
vibrant culture. Hence, first, through this paper, our findings show that the
stake of cultural tourism over other modes of tourism is comparatively
high in India. The government of India is also planning to boost such
cultural tourism themes as it supports sustainable goals. Further, this
paper supported with a survey identified the major factors that are
influencing the tourists to prefer cultural tourism and how the
Government of India’s initiatives are supporting it. It also summarises the
gap between the perception of the visitor and the actual available
resources. It also elaborates the sustainable measures to bridge the same.
Finally, this research paper identifies the challenges in fulfilling the
expectations of tourists and how digitalisation is supporting the same and
leading Indian tourism towards a sustainable path.
The survey results show that with the current findings and reports it is
visibly clear that cultural tourism is the way to move to have sustainable
stability in the tourism sector. We can further say that since, Post-
Independence Tourism has always remained an important part of India’s
Five Year Plans for development. Domestic travelers as well as foreign
travelers’ demographic profile has changed during the last few years so is
the frequency in which they prefer to travel. Development in this sector
has an influence in enhancing the standard of living of the residents and
also creating livelihood opportunities for them. More and more visitors
push the infrastructural development, further as the uniqueness of the
site has to be effectively communicated the initiatives taken online are
also contributing to it.
Tourist spots which are appreciated globally bring cultural pride among
the people living around and created a unique space for India on the
global map of tourism. However, as the gap can still be visible and hence it
gives a scope of further improvement and establishments in this sector.
The parameters are huge; however, the outcome shows a positive and
progressive result on many of the parameters, it further opens a way for
future study in this topic and explores more valuable feedback. Based on
the respondents’ demographics, it is seen that scribes that as now a day’s
not only the older generation who were basically the mass travellers to
any such cultural sites in India, but young tourists within the category of
25 years to 45 years are interested in taking such cultural travel options
over other available themes. Also, this shows that not like earlier when the
trend use to be like the travelling was only taken at the later stage of once
life for e.g., after the retirements are planned, but with the promotional
initiatives its show that more and more young travellers are interested in
exploring the India and enjoy short visits throughout the year to all the
nearby approachable destinations mostly to enjoy the traditional and
cultural treat of that site.
