Indian tourism industry had traditionally been designed for the foreign tourist. However, the growing influx of domestic travellers has been a wake-up call. The number of domestic tourists stood at 850 million in 2011 which is more than 150 times of inbound arrivals. Domestic tourism visits have grown by over 10 per cent during the last couple of years. The growth rate was 10.6 per cent in 2010, 12.1 per cent in 2011. In 2009, the rate of growth of domestic tourism was of the order of 15.8 per cent, a year in which the global economy came under pressure due to the financial meltdown. According to the Planning Commission Draft Approach Paper, the number of domestic tourist visits in 2016 is estimated to be 1451.46 mn.
Moreover, the promotion of domestic tourism also costs less. It has taken many years of learning for the industry to come to the conclusion that domestic tourism is the backbone of the tourism industry, and experts unanimously agreeing that domestic tourism is the foundation. You can develop domestic tourism to become the springboard for international tourism. Then you constantly evolve your tourism product to cater to both types of tourists. Wherever tourism is big, it’s both domestic and international.
Another factor which has prompted the stakeholders of the industry to look at the domestic segment is the decline in the US and European economies, both of which contributed largely to this turnaround. If that was not enough, the depreciation of rupee has also given an accidental push to domestic tourism. Many Indians who had intentions of travelling abroad have had their plans curtailed due to the sharp fall in the rupee, causing planned foreign holiday travel to become that much more expensive. This has also prompted travellers to opt for holidays within the country.
Although the numbers for domestic tourists is largely fuelled by religious tourism, we have seen that states like Goa and Kerala benefitting from this market. Earlier, Goa and Kerala were mainly dependent on foreign markets, each witnessing three months of lean season during the monsoons. Today, we see Goa selling ‘Goa in Rains’ as a domestic package. Goa Tourism is also rolling out other attractions designed specifically for Indians. Similarly, Kerala also has three-month monsoon, which is now been packaged as the ‘Dream Season’. Domestic tourism can make tourist destination year-round ones, and we must continue to capitalise on this.
