Reviving "Atithi Devo Bhava": Key to Transforming Indian Tourism

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"Atithi Devo Bhava" was a very powerful tag line used by the Ministry of Tourism. These three words sum up the Indian culture in the way Indian families believe in treating their guests. This campaign played a crucial role in fostering a more welcoming and respectful environment for tourists in India, thereby increasing Intenational tourist arrival by 10 -12 % and domestic tourist by 7 -9 %.  Unfortunately, the impact was short lived and soon forgotten. 

We all understand that tourism has the potential to transform the country by stimulating economic growth, enhancing cultural exchange and promoting sustainable development. It not only contributes to the GDP directly by generating revenue from various sector like hospitality, transportation, retail, entertainment etc, it also has a multiplier effect in sector like agriculture and construction. 

It is encouraging to see rise in infrastructure spending with focus on good quality roads, airports, and railways. The recent union budget had provisions for creating two tourism corridors with a view to create them as world class destinations. This push will drive the investment from private sector impacting the hospitality and transportation sector amongst others. In addition, several other such initiative have been taken in the recent past. With investment and planning, infrastructure will happen. 

Infrastructure will come by, it is however,  the softer and seemingly smaller things that finally make or break the tourist experience. The power of soft infrastructure should not be underestimated.  It has the potential to enhance tourist experience. Excellence in customer service, providing culturally rich experience, ethical behavior, cleanliness of public conveniences, clean cabs and other forms of transportation, hygiene and sanitation.

There are other non tourism related areas which contribute to tourist experience, the most important being traffic management, parking management,  decently kept and managed local forms of transportation including e- rickshaws and autorickshaws etc. Reviving the concept of tourist police will go a long way in instilling a sense of security amongst tourist.

The soft infrastructure will only get developed with a heightened sense of commitment to implement focused skills development for each of these areas. The task seems daunting to change the "attitude" along with skills and knowledge, however with the structure and network for skill development already in place, it only requires concentration on popular tourist destinations to begin with. Regular training and certification of all formal and informal human resource who may come in contact with the tourists, identifying key indicators to measure the impact and developing a mechanism to take feedback from tourists. 

It will be value for money spend and will contribute to national image building. Tourist remember the experience. The quality of experience is carried back home and remains a talking point for a long time amongst family and friends. 

It is time to give one more push to the Skills India and Swatch Bharat Mission to send the message to experience the Indian hospitality and the spirit of  "Atithi Devo Bhava".




Comments

  1. Dr Rajesh Chauhan22 September 2024 at 06:45

    Well written and almost all parameters have been listed that will have an impact on tourist rush! Once fully effective tourists would be really interested in visiting many places of huge interests in the country especially nicely carved amazing temples standing for over one thousand years.

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