Industry chamber develops roadmap for religious tourism

A survey by leading industry chamber and Yes Bank emphasise on an urgent need to address problems of waste management, air pollution, monetisation at religious places to realise the huge potential of religious tourism in India.

 

"India has abundance of religious centres across the country. Therefore, it is not necessary to create either core or supporting products. What is needed is to develop and explore ancillary products. As religious tourism in India can provide a unique experience to any keen observer of faith and culture, it is imperative that the product is developed professionally rather than the haphazard manner in which the sector has been growing," a FICCI-YES BANK report, released at the Great Indian Travel Bazaar in Jaipur on April 15th, 2012 noted laying out a clear roadmap for the development of religious tourism sector in the country.It also suggested the following models.

 

Developing religious tourism circuits through a hub and spoke model: One of the first steps in this aspect is to create nodes near religious centers, where there is already a basic infrastructure present and plan day trips from there. For example, Chennai in South India can be a node for excursions to Madurai, Thanjavur, Trichnapalli and Pondicherry. 

Madurai is the home of the exquisite Meenakshi Temple, which is regarded as the holiest temple in India by many people. As the influx of crowd is already sizeable in famous spots, a hub and spoke model will ensure tourist spread to all the nearby attractions.

 

Providing the tourists with a holistic tourism experience:Attracting the tourist segments that are not attracted to religious sites, needs a holistic package around the religious spots. Tourists may not find it worthwhile to come all the way just for a pilgrimage. An innovative mechanism to streamline this development can be created to market a religious tourism destination as an alternative tourism destination. For example, Rishikesh is marketed as both a religious and an adventure tourism destination.

 

Marketing religious tourism destinations needs special training as a major part of the visitors are attracted to these destinations due to reasons like studying old culture, evolution of practices and research: Only blind faith may not be the attraction of these sites. These are also an enabler towards attracting the non religious strata of the population. The innovation in this case can blend the ritualistic part of the religious tours with informative, cultural and philosophical inputs. Traditional dances, music and theatre related to the religious shrine will have to be built into the itinerary. Discourses on the essence of the religious beliefs, workshops on yoga and ayurvedic practices can add immense value to religious tourism.

 

Developing integrated infrastructure for religious tourism development: Infrastructure development requires religious tourism circuits to be identified and hence the State Government is required to streamline the development of the entire religious tourism circuit existing in a given region/area.

 

Enhanced emphasis of minimizing the impact on the environment and maintaining the ecological balance: Appropriate checks and balances need to be put in place to ensure that the negative impact of tourism on environment is minimized. These checks and balances can be in the form of fines. Religious Tourism is endemic to a given geography and in this scenario training of the local population deriving its source of livelihood from tourism in the field of environment management can be the model approach.

 

Scrutiny of religious trusts: There needs to be a practice for reviewing the financial status and regulation of religious trusts as it will allay global concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Such a law will also pave the way to make public names of organizations that claim tax exemption to ensure greater transparency. This is especially crucial in a scenario when some of India's religious trusts are among the richest in the world.

 

Developing appropriate Institutional Framework to stimulate the growth of Religious Tourism: The Department of Tourism of the respective state governments should institute a separate board to prepare and implement plans to provide necessary facilities to the devotees and also ensure conservation of cultural atmosphere consistent with sentiments of visiting devotees. The religious aspect of tourism is a crucial enabler in economic development of the local region. The nature of economic development relies heavily on the institutional mechanisms of any region and the infrastructural development undertaken to stimulate the development of that particular region. Hence in the above scenario, it is extremely crucial that appropriate institutional mechanisms be put suitably in place to streamline the spill off effects occurring as a result of religious tourism.

 

Pricing of religious tourism products: The pricing of religious tourism products needs to be in tandem with the different sectors of people visiting the sites. In India, the prices paid are only for the tertiary services provided and not for the actual services of the religious flavors one intends to experience. Hence, attempts need to be taken to ensure that the pricing of the tourism product is such that it compensates for educational and cultural services provided to those interested. But extreme caution must be exerted while attempting the pricing of these products. As we know that majority of pilgrims are either from middle or budget classes, therefore, pricing of products needs to be done to suit their budgets.

 

Limiting the impact of globalization on places with an endemic flavor of being a distinct religious tourism attraction: Since religious tourism is based on the values, customs, practices, traditions and beliefs of a particular region, the same need to be maintained. It is only by preserving these local values and customs that one can provide a genuine and original religious tourism product.

 

Improving connectivity to specific religious tourism circuits to promote them: Attracting tourists to remote religious areas will require improving the connectivity to these regions to develop these into commercially viable tourism sites. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India has developed specialized infrastructure for the development of Buddhist Tourism Circuit by developing an international airport near Gaya and provided a strong impetus to the development of Buddhist Tourism Circuit. The airport operates flights directly from key SAARC countries such as China, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, etc.