Adventure tourism can make India a 365 days tourist destination : Mr Akshay Kumar
While addressing CII Roundtable on Adventure Tourism on 24 April’13 here at New Delhi, Mr. Akshay Kumar, President, Adventure Tour Operators, Association of India, CEO, Mercury Himalayan Explorations Ltd. highlighted upon enormous potential of adventure tourism, and said that over a period of time, focus has shifted from hard-core to soft-core / multi-activity based adventure tourism. It is interesting to note that revenue from domestic tourists is much more in comparison to inbound tourists. Further, he emphasized upon safety and quality issues, and suggested to encourage usage of satellite phones. Since 70% of Himalyan range is in India, and Incredible India Himalayan campaign is in place, industry should strategize to encourage adventure tourism activities during Off-Season and cater to tourists all round the year.
Pointing out the benefits of Adventure tourism over conventional tourism, Mr. Arjun Sharma, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism, & MD, Le Passage to India, said that “With the help of adventure tourism, we can showcase varied aspects of Indian culture as inbound tourists get an opportunity to closely engage with society”. According to him, there is need to devise ways to create more synergies for this sector, and for addressing the prevailing bottlenecks.
Mr. Ajeet Bajaj (Padma Shri), Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures Pvt. Ltd., said that nearly 90% of adventure tourism is concentrated in soft adventure tourism and recommended that multi-pronged approach to be adopted to promote and harness potential in a safe and sustainable manner. With a view to make optimal utilization of airstrips, he suggested that the defense airstrips should be allowed to be used for commercial operations. In his opinion, emphasis should be placed on Insurance aspect and opening up new institutions promoting multiple adventures sports besides mountaineering like rafting, canoeing, skiing, etc.
Lauding government’s efforts in promoting adventure tourism, Mr. Subhash Goyal, President IATO, Chairman Stic Travels, said that all the tour operators should gear up to take advantage of Rs 3 Crore which has been allocated for Incredible India Himalayan campaign. Also, he suggested to create a helpline in multiple languages exclusively for this industry.
Earlier, Ms Amita Sarkar, Senior Director, CII, said that adventure tourism is a playing a crucial role in not only driving inclusive growth but also for generating employment opportunities and hence its potential can not be ignored.
24th April 2013
New Delhi