Hit hard by the slowdown tour operators in the country are set to get a leg up from their subaltern brethren who are sprucing up their homes and skills of the English language to welcome vacationers to their unique pastoral ambience.

After testing out the concept with 13 villages across the country, the Ministry of Tourism has now decided to expand its rural tourism initiative to 130 other centres in the hinterland to develop them as tourism destinations. This is part of the Ministry’s Visit India 2009 campaign which comes in the wake of the successful of the ‘Incredible India’ campaign.

The move is likely to provide a fillip to the industry which has seen growth in international tourist arrivals drop from 14% in 2007 to 5.8% in 2008. In fact apex tour industry body, the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IAOTA), is expecting a negative growth this year.

The Ministry will allocate Rs 50 lakh for development of infrastructure at each of these rural sites while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will provide Rs 20 lakh through the Ministry of Skills Development to equip artisans there to improve and market their wares through vocational training programmes.

The UNDP has also hired seven architects to keep the original ambience of the villages intact, Sudhir Sahi an official from the Tourism and Environmental Services, said.

Bookings for the initial 13 villages will be available for foreign and domestic tourists from starting April while the others will be developed over the next few months. As many as 36 of them have already been identified and are in an advanced stage of completion, Sahi said.

IAOTA Vice President Arun Anand said, “As tour operators, we have incorporated some new rural destinations like Raghurajpur (Orissa) in our packages. Rural tourism is a niche market and quite a lot of rich people not affected by the economic down turn are looking forward to the experience.”   

According to Travel Tours vice president, sales and marketing, Ashwin Narayanan, who is involved in promoting rural tourism said, “It helps local people in their nature conservation efforts and gives them an opportunity to work as guides/escorts or organise festivals.” Some of them are also being taught English to interact with foreign tourists,” added Narayanan. However, more aggressive promotions for rural tourism are needed, say analysts.

Sobia Khan/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication