Q.

4(c) Examine the problems and prospects of Special Tourism Zones being envisaged by the
government.

STRUCTURE: -

Tourism is a big employment generator and has a multiplier impact on the economy. Five Special
Tourism Zones, anchored on SPVs, will be set up in partnership with the States, as per Budget.
Also, the image of India in the international travel market the Incredible India 2.0 Campaign will
be unveiled across the world in the coming financial year.

SPECIAL TOURISM ZONE

The term "special tourist zone" means an area designated as one exempted or granted leniency
from regulations under any statute related to tourism activities and in which it is required to apply
endeavors to develop an environment for tourism, such as services, information systems, and
public relations, relating to tourism activities in order to facilitate the attraction of foreign tourists
under Article 2 (11) of the Tourism Promotion Act.

Designation of Special Tourist Zones

Special tourist zones shall be designated by the Mayor/Do Governor at the requests of the head of
a City/County/District (excluding cases of the Special Self-Governing Province), from among areas
that satisfy all the requirements in the followings:

The number of foreign tourists shall reach or exceed the quota prescribed by Presidential
Decree;
There shall be facilities for tourist information facilities, public facilities, accommodations,
etc. to meet the demands of foreign tourists, as prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism; and
 The ratio of land that has no direct connection with tourist activities, such as woodlands,
farmland, industrial area, and housing lots, shall not exceed the guideline prescribed by
Presidential Decree.

Requirements for Designation of Special Tourist Zone

The number of foreign tourists during the preceding one year in the relevant area should
be 100 thousand persons (or 500 thousand persons for Seoul Special Metropolitan City)
according to the statistics announced by an institution specialized in statistics that meet
the guidelines publicly notified by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The ratio of the area of land that has no direct connection with tourist activities, such as
woodland, farmland, industrial area, and housing lots, to total area of a special tourist
zone should be less than 10 percent.

Other government recent initiatives:

The government has asked the Railways to start dedicated trains for tourism and pilgrimage
purposes. The government allocated 1,840.77 crore to the Tourism Ministry in the Budget,
including 959.91 crore for the Integrated Development of Tourist Circuits around specific themes
(Swadesh Darshan scheme).

The Ministry will be receiving a little over 250 crore more in the 2017-18 fiscal compared to the
ongoing financial year, according to the budget document. Another 100 crore has been allocated
for Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD). Significantly, as much as
412 crore has been provided for promotion and publicity of the Tourism Ministrys various
programmes and schemes.

Under Swadesh Darshan, 13 thematic circuits have been identified for development, namely
North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert
Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit
and Heritage Circuit.

On the other hand, 13 cities Ajmer, Amritsar, Amravati, Dwarka, Gaya, Kamakhaya,
Kancheepuram, Kedarnath, Mathura, Patna, Puri, Varanasi and Velankanni have been identified
for development under PRASAD by the Tourism Ministry.

FINAL COMMENT:

Although India has progressed a lot since 1950s with respect to tourism, she is still way behind the
developed or even the developing countries.

Still there are large areas which are untapped from the tourist point of view. Traditionally a
popular destination, North India still draws about 49 per cent of the tourists; whereas only 4 per
cent go to east.

West is doing better getting 29 per cent of the tourist inflow. South, despite its beaches, temples,
hills, etc. gets only 18 per cent of foreign and domestic tourists. Thus there is great potential for
development of tourism, particularly in east and south, which require proper tapping with
immediate effect.

Foreign tourists often fail to get suitable accommodation in hotels and go back as a dissatisfied lot.
At the beginning of the millennium, Indias shortage was estimated at 30,000 rooms. Today, the
requirement is much larger, considering rapid increase in the inflow of foreign tourists after 2002.
Another problem of recent origin is that Indian tourists have started travelling abroad rather than
travelling within the country. With each outgoing Indian tourist spending an average of $ 3 000 an
estimated amount of Rs. 72,600 crore went out of the country. Of late, Indian tourists are looking
beyond Shimla, Srinagar, Ooty, Mumbai, Delhi and Goa, and are grabbing foreign holiday deals like
never before.

The main cause of outflow of Indian tourists is high aviation cost in the domestic sector. When a
tourist in North India can get cheaper return tickets to Sri Lanka or Thailand than to Goa or Kerala,
he will obviously go abroad.

The unplanned and unrestricted growth of tourism has a detrimental effect on environment. The
origin and growth of tourism in India as elsewhere in the world, is distinctly urban oriented rather
than being spread over the countryside. This is due to the fact that urban centres provide the
necessary infrastructure and wider choice of facilities and price ranges for accommodation, food,
entertainment, etc.

The unplanned and unchecked growth of tourist centres deprives them of their original charm and
ultimately proves disastrous. This is what is happening to some of the famous tourist centres like
Shimla, Mussoorie, Darjeeling, etc. where sometimes even drinking water is not available to cater to
the needs of the tourists.

Sometimes, the area around a tourist spot is covered by commercial constructions and even by
industries. Such unplanned growth tarnishes the image of the concerned spot. The Taj Mahal at
Agra, the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai, the Lingaraja temple in Bhubaneshwar and the palace in
Udaipur are examples of this nature where much of the original beauty and charm is lost due to
unplanned constructions around them.

Though many environments are endowed with great tourist potential, they are delicately balanced
and large scale unplanned expansion of tourism in such areas often manifests itself in problems of
serious environmental concern. Therefore, it is necessary that tourism should be developed in a
planned way taking care of environment and infrastructural development.

The emphasis should be on the threshold development tapping in view the carrying capacity of a
given environment. In other words, growth and development of tourist industry should be
environmental friendly. To be environmental friendly, the stress should be on what is nowadays
known as soft tourism.