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News India Beyond The Pandemic: What Will It Take To Rebuild Tourism In India?
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India Beyond The Pandemic: What Will It Take To Rebuild Tourism In India?

An expert talks about how trust can be resurrected and Brand India can be brought back to its former glories—or even better.

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By: Simran Kodesia Published: Jul 24, 2021 08:00 AM IST

India Beyond The Pandemic: What Will It Take To Rebuild Tourism In India?
Photo Courtesy: Shutterstock

The pandemic has brought leisure travel almost to a standstill, crushing ‘Brand India’ to its bare remains. An industry insider talks about how trust can be resurrected among travellers, and tourism in the country brought back to its former glory. By Simran Kodesia

 

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With the Coronavirus pandemic impacting travel significantly over the past 18 months, reviving the tourism sector, which has a multiplier effect on local communities, is an important challenge to tackle on an urgent footing. But as Zig Ziglar said, “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations; the best is yet to come.” It is time to leverage the learnings from the pandemic and redefine, refocus, and change the game plan for tourism going forward, and make ‘Brand India’ stand out.

As travel resumes in earnest later this year, the first focus area should be embedding responsiveness, sustainability principles, and community-first approaches. As businesses focus on facilitating dynamic social and cultural exchanges between communities through travel and stay, we have to rebuild consumer trust through principles of safe travel.

However, we also need to embrace the bigger picture and make more purposeful shifts. The impact of COVID-19 on communities that have supported Indian tourism has been most severe. Therefore, the pathway to recovery for Brand India must be reinstating, building and maintaining trust in tourism that is inclusive, and benefits the entire ecosystem involved.

Rebuild Trust

 

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Meeting tourism’s demand in a responsible way will mandate capacity building to provide relevant solutions that benefit travellers while keeping a focus on health and safety at every step.

(Re)building trust in travel includes establishing a harmonised approach towards setting guidelines for restarting travel. Before travellers step out of their doors, they now rely more on standardised health and hygiene protocols. Global markets are addressing this concern well. World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched the ‘Safe Travels’ stamp, which has been designed to allow potential travellers to easily recognise establishments around the world that have adopted standardised protocols. This provides a cue on how the industry and government can work together on an approach that makes travel safe and trusted again.

Embrace Flexibility 

Additionally, people are looking for more flexible travel choices and are finding comfort in planning. This, again, is cue for more innovative approaches from travel solution providers—many of whom have opted for a new, improved browsing and booking experience or have introduced more flexible rebooking policies. Technology and digital infrastructure is already shaping the future of travel and tourism by driving affordability, sustainability, and reach.

In the context of COVID-19, digital tools and frameworks have become even more critical to enhance recovery and growth. From digital passport stamps, automatic screenings and clearances, to real-time dashboards for would-be travellers…the sky is the limit. The need for predictability and flexibility in travel, especially during the pandemic, can be a valuable catalyst for future innovation in the sector. We need private players to work with the government and look at holistic end-to-end solutions.

Responsible Travel

The challenges brought in by the pandemic, and the feeling that we are going through a shared experience, is also driving consumer consciousness when they travel. As consumers gravitate towards more flexible and secluded or standalone options for travel and stay, many also understand the challenges the communities that they travel to have to face. This is also changing how people fundamentally approach travel.

Travel has always been about an interchange of cultural understanding, but increasing number of people are opting for flexibility in the way that they engage when they travel by embracing nearby or longer stays in homestays and unique accommodations that give back to the local ecosystem.

Promote Diversity

India’s rich civilisational and cultural heritage makes it the sixth largest globally in terms of World Heritage Sites identified by UNESCO. However, once travel resumes, there are a lot of unique domestic tourism experiences, outside of mass tourism centres, that can be promoted across the magical destinations that Brand India has to offer–from the hills to snow-capped peaks and lush ranges, deserts, beaches, and the beauty of the remote Indian hinterland.

The Government of India’s tourism circuits and an enhanced focus on eco-tourism, wellness tourism, and rural experiences will benefit not just local communities but also customers who are keen to take on domestic travel. Late last year, wildlife tourism with sanitised safari jeeps and smaller tour batches at national parks and sanctuaries across the country also saw a rise in demand from domestic travellers. This reopening of forests was seen as a beacon of hope for safari drivers and tour guides.

 

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Fundamentally, travel is here to stay. We can rebuild travel to a more sustainable, integrated and resilient sector by engaging with partners, governments and stakeholders across the travel ecosystem to instil principles of sustainable and responsible tourism.

While the consumer is king, consumer benefit and community interest are not mutually exclusive; in fact, far from it. Consumers are leading the change in sustainable tourism practices and safeguarding local communities. Working together will unlock a new future for Brand India and promote the rich, variegated set of unique community-led destination experiences our beautiful country has to offer.

Kodesia is the Communications Lead—India & South East Asia, Airbnb

Related: A Crash Course On Community-Based Tourism & Its Importance Right Now

Written By

Simran Kodesia

Simran Kodesia

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