Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in Hospitality and Tourism Sector in India

INTRODUCTION

In the 21st century, global economy is driven by three major sectors includes technology, telecommunication and tourism. Tourism is extremely labour intensive and a significant source of employment. Tourism Industry is the largest service sector in India. Tourism is a practice of travelling for recreational or leisure purpose. Tourism includes accommodation, entertainment and transportation. ―All tourism is travel but all travel is not tourism‖. Tourism is related to pleasure, holidays, travel and going or arriving somewhere. Tourism and hospitality industries create many employment opportunities in some countries, the contribution of tourism for employment is indispensible; for instance, India is the second largest employment generator in the field of tourism.

The data was collected with help of secondary data collection techniques. Secondary data is used in this research and is collected through published and unpublished sources which included the internet, scholarly journals, research publication, etc.

The word „tour‟ is derived from the Latin word „tornaro‟ and the Greek word „tornos‟, meaning a „lathe‟ or „circle‟, the movement around a central point or axis. The word tourist was used in 1772 and tourism in 1811.

1) Pro Hunziker and Crapf: Tourism is the totally of the relationship and phenomenon arising from the travel and stay of strangers, does not imply the establishment of a permanent residence and is not connected with remunerated activity. 2) World Tourism Organization: Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling and to standing in places outside their usual native for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. Among the 140 countries surveyed, India was placed at the 34th position in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019.

The present study has following specific research objectives: i) To find out the major opportunities and challenges of Tourism Industry in India. ii) To provide recommendations for the development of Tourism Industry in India.

It is a major challenge for the Indian tourism sector. Tourism-associated economic and social infrastructure – hotels, connectivity, human resources, hygiene, health facilities, etc are largely under developed in India. Tourism infrastructure in many locations is outdated and underdeveloped. Governments, tourism boards, and destination marketing organizations must work towards improving the current infrastructure with foresight. At even the biggest Indian tourist‘s spots, there is no way for someone who doesn‘t know the place or the language to get help and guidance. Lack of basic tourism infrastructure like information centers, transportation etc. The problem of taxis and auto rickshaws not being safe and overcharging customers is a big pain. Future challenges must also be addressed in this area. Solutions could include faster immigration at airports, faster checkout processes in hotels, better public transportation, and interpreting solutions at airports, stations or ports.

Availability of skilled manpower is a major challenge faced by the tourism industry, one of the largest employment generators in the country. To sustain growth in the travel and tourism industry, trained manpower/ workforce is required at every level - managerial, supervisory, skilled or semi-skilled. Challenges faced at each level are different. Shortage of trained workforce and inadequate training. Highly skilled and potential men hold an inevitable part of the tourism sector. To maintain the growth of our Indian travel and tourism industry a large amount of skilled man force is required at different levels. This basically mirrors the poor quality infrastructure our nation. accessible to poor, women and elderly. This is because of high costs of travelling, poor connectivity and a series of permissions required for various causes.

Language is also a big barrier here. Even though English is widely spoken and understood but still there are many who cannot understand this language. In the regional languages the foreign tourists has to face the problem of communication with the locals in India. Also sometimes foreign tourists are not able to understand the English while having a conversation with the locals due to lack of ability to communicate properly, the impact of regional accent, grammatical mistake, etc. by local.

Local transport taxi or auto rickshaw drivers always try to fool tourists, especially foreigners for gaining extra fare from them. If you are unaware of the local fares, in most of the cases you may end up spending more than the fair prices. Not only that, some takes longer routes than the usual, just for running the meter for a long time. Also sometimes these dishonest people can get you in trouble and try to rob you if you are alone, especially in late nights.

Security is one of the major challenges faced by Indian tourism. The increasing rate of sexual abuse of women, theft, credit card fraud, identity theft, food poisoning, terrorism, and public violence is affecting Indian tourism to a high extent. Safety and security of tourists, especially of foreign tourists, this one is a major roadblock to the tourism development. Women safety is another issue that tourist‘s sector. The nightlife of India is sometimes more like a nightmare. The female Tourist does not feel safe here.

7) EXPLOITATION:

All of these people (the tourism folks) assume that white folks are far richer and they have a special price for foreigners. In fact, in most of the places, locals are going to charge you more money for the same stuff in India.

Good tourist destinations among the travelers and also lack of good education to the locals on receiving guests and hosting them. Also lack of publicity on culture. In the tourism and hospitality

Terrorism also reduces the tour. This deters people from travelling because they feel unsafe. Today terrorism is the biggest threat for tourist traveling to India. Incident like 2008 Mumbai attack, German bakery attack in Pune, serial blast in Mumbai locals etc.

Hygiene in India also annoys tourists. Unhygienic food, water or surroundings make them sick. Indians are not that much concerned about clean surroundings for their own well being. That is a major problem for a foreign tourist who comes from the country that is more hygienic and takes cleanliness quite seriously. In India, generally in rural areas and urban slums, people are not much concerned about keeping their surroundings clean.

This is one of the major problems faced by tourists in India. There are many shops, Hotels, restraints which do not accept any international debit card, credit cards or other card due to which many times tourists face the problem of card acceptance.

Travel agents main purpose is to make money. Here in India, some of the local travel agents focus only on earning more money. They put efforts to make money, not on giving their traveler a life-long experience of their culture and tradition.

Tourism is a smokeless industry, but it affects more risk than a smoker industry. Tourists distort and corrupt historic monuments, tradition and cultural sites. That is to sculpt their names on monuments, paint the inscriptions & paintings etc. The environment is damaging by some of the materials used by tourists. The discharge of tourist waste products is damaging nature of beauty. All of this can also damage the environment.

In addition to tour operators and hotels staff, tourists interact with persons from different backgrounds, occupations & experience. Such people include staff at bus/railway station, immigration staff at airports, taxi/coach operators, ticketing/travel agencies, small hotels, dhabas/roadside eateries, staff at heritage

This is affecting the growth of the industry in India. Inbound tourism is the one most affected. High taxes on the entire industry including the airline facilities, hotels, and tour operators are highly expensive. This is the one main reason why India loses to other less expensive countries when it comes to tourism. For instance, consider the price of air tickets; it varies in all the 29 states in India.

There are many frauds in India who try to rob, steal or cheat the tourists. Overcharging or gaining extra fare than the fair prices by the shopkeepers or the taxi drivers are common. Indians are known for their generosity, humbleness, culture, and tradition. They treat their guest as the god, but all five fingers are not alike. Along with the people who will always ready to help you out, there will be some frauds as well.

Great promotion and enough marketing push are excessively indispensable for a nation‘s travel industry improvement in India. Be that as it may, in India, the financial backing allotted to help and advance the travel industry is moderately less contrasted with other tourist destinations. At present India needs a colossal move from the conventional marketing techniques that are still being followed to a much modern approach.

Employment opportunities in tourism and hospitality sectors can be created either directly or indirectly. Direct Employment opportunities are the total number of job opportunities supported by directly in travel and tourism sector. For example employment by hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tourism information offices, museums, protected areas such as national parks, palaces, religious sites, monuments, aircrafts, resorts or shopping outlets, photography, sightseeing tours, farmhouses, bed and breakfast, and guest houses local transportation (state owned airlines and railways, private transport facilities). Tourism and hospitality also supports indirect employment in activities like restaurant suppliers, construction companies that build and maintain tourist facilities, as well as necessary infrastructure, providing direct employment for their revenues.

Due to the development of tourism in India, numbers of restaurants are increasing day by day. Thus providing various job opportunities for unemployed. Day by day the income of the restaurants is increasing, thus increasing the wages of the workers working there. From the trained people, like manager even the untrained sweepers, cook and others getting also good wages.

There's a saying in India, "Athithi Devo Bhava", which means "The Guest is God". Indians consider it a huge honor to have guests in their home, and go out of their way to please them. Home stays are very important means to earn income and to generate employment in rural areas. Some countries do more to encourage home stays than other as means of developing their tourism industry in India. Hosting a home stays allows the local family to earn some additional needed income. If you're a solo female traveler who is visiting India for the first time or are simply concerned about staying safe, you'll have a family who looks after you at a homestay.

The rapid growth of lodges is also the result of tourism also growth. It has created several type job opportunities even for the illiterates.

Taxies or auto rickshaw are in great demand as the tourists always want taxies as means of transportation. The taxi owners and drivers are paid whatever money they demand from the tourists. This has also created several job opportunities in India.

The number of shops and street traders are increasing, thus providing job opportunities for untrained and unskilled.

i) A high-quality skilled workforce will ensure greater competitiveness and innovation, improve job prospects and ease the process of adjustment in changing markets. ii) In order to have effective work forces in Tourism and hospitality industries much should be devoted to build democratic, participative management cultures. hygiene like food, water and sanitation facilities at tourist places. ii) The government of India should take the initiative and improve tourism facilities like infrastructure hotels, connectivity, human resources, hygiene and health facilities for the travelers.

CONCLUSION:

Tourism not only creates jobs in the tertiary sector, it also encourages growth in the primary and secondary sectors of industry. Tourism in India is a sun rise industry, an employment generator, a significant source of foreign exchange for the state and an economic activity that helps local and host communities. Rising income levels and changing lifestyles, development of diverse tourism offerings. Tourism can play an effective role in integrating the entire world. However, the tourism sector is facing many challenges such as lack of good quality tourist infrastructure, health and safety of tourists, lack of basic amenities across country and shortfall of adequately trained and skilled manpower. So, the well plans and programmes should be designed to solve these challenges, successful implementation of programmes is very important to accelerate growth in India.

1) Karnataka Pravasi Swarga – Pro K. S. Nagapati 2) Indian Tourism – Dr. V.K.Dyamanagoudra 3) Travel and Tourism Management – Md.Abu Barkat Ali 4) Tourism in India – Abhoy Das Jhangi 5) Bharathadalli Pravasodyama Ithihasa- KNA 6) Indian Tourism – Anurag Mathur 7) https://www.linkedin.com /pulse/development-tourism-india -vipin-chaudhary 8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-chariot 9) https://www.quora.com 10) https://www.slideshare.net - Opportunities and Challenges in India Tourism 11) Tourism in India – V.K.Gupta

Assistant Professor of History, SSCA Govt. First Grade College, K. K. Koppa, Belagavi, Karnataka