"Bigotry tries to keep
truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it."
—Rabindranath Tagore
(Indian, 1861-1941)
Word for the day
Improbity (n)
Lack of honesty or moral
scruples.
Malice towards none
When you read the
promotional material of the Modi government, you only find what the government
did for Muslim society, particularly women. No mention of what they did for
Hindutava.
Appeasement!!!
First random thought this morning
BJP's outreach program (Sampark se Samarthan) has gathered
significant coverage and evoked mixed response in media and political circles. Through
this program BJP aims to reach out to one lakh prominent personalities from
various fields and explain to them the achievements of the NDA government led
by them.
The more one reads about this, the more one gets a feeling that
BJP is taking 2019 general elections too seriously. Like in Mahabharta where
both the sides approached all the states in Aryavrata for fighting from their
sides, BJP is preempting the support of all "the influential" people.
Would be interesting to see how many of these would actually come
out and campaign for BJP; and how many voters would get influenced by these!
Its' Chicken-Egg conundrum
As mentioned yesterday (see here), the domestic tourism in India is still in very
nascent stage of evolution. Only a third of the population is making overnight
trips outside their home city, that too for an average duration of little over
2days per trip.
Most of domestic tourism revolves
around medical treatment, pilgrimage, social purposes, and education.
Holidaying and leisure account for a miniscule part of the total travel market.
Few states account for most of the
domestic tourism origination and destinations. The rural population is forced
to travel for medical and education purposes and spend more than the people
staying in urban centers. Moreover, the average budget for a domestic tourist
(for non-medical purposes) is a very low to support a profitable tourism
infrastructure.
This poses a sort of chicken egg
dilemma for the sector.
On one hand, the poor
infrastructure and higher costs is driving the affluent and even middle
middleclass tourists to overseas locations, and keeps the affluent foreign
tourists away from most tourist destinations in the country.
On the other hand, the industry is
not able to invest in infrastructure or reduce costs as the number of tourists
who can afford to pay for services is very low.
It is also important to consider
the following what I learnt from an hotelier in Nainital a couple of years ago.
He said, "The number of tourists from smaller towns has increased manifold
in recent years. These are not necessarily low budget tourists but do not like
to spend on 'room rent' and good food. Their social etiquettes do not really
match the traditional tourist, who were essentially urbane and educated.
Consequently, the traditional tourists are now avoiding this destination and
opting for overseas travel. Mass has overtaken the class. There are frequent
traffic jams and brawls. Some upscale property owners are already finding it
hard to sustain and many low end property owners are extending their facility
in an unauthorized manner with the connivance of the local administration."
(see here)
This is very representative of the
current status of the industry in most of the places, except perhaps a few
pilgrimage centers like Kashi, Tirupati, Haridwar etc.
What also needs to be considered
is that if the current trend continues., we might need to develop more than 10k
new tourist destinations in next decade, in the states of UP and Uttrakhand
alone. Also, if the sustainability and ecological issues if not addressed
immediately and very strictly, the situation will be beyond reparation in next
one decade and the consequences will indubitably be disastrous.
The government will need to play
an active role in this......to continue tomorrow
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