Determinants of Tourism Demand in India
Determinants of Tourism Demand in India
Determinants of Tourism Demand in India
2.
ABSTRACT: Tourism As an important sector of the Indian economy with considerable contribution in terms
of Foreign exchange, income and employment opportunities. Many factors can be seen as responsible for this
and some major ones in the process have been increase in the volume of Tourist flow, increase in the proportion
of high spending tourists, accelerated spread in the Volume of tourists geographically, pro-active govt. policies
and growing interest from investors. Appreciable growth tourism has been demonstratively catalytic in their
role as agents of positive Contribution in the socio-economic development in the country. In India, recent
statistics shows decline growth in the tourism industry, the growth rate in Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) in
Rs. terms in May 2011 over May 2010 was 15.8 % as compared to 34.1 % in May 2010 over May 2009. This
decline is outcome of many factors which include Human Activity and other natural calamities. The present
study was conducted with an objective to identify the Determinants of Tourism Demand in India. The present
study is based on the secondary data published in various journals, articles, books, newspapers and others
sources of information. The study expose that, the determinants of tourism demand are those factors with
propensities to shape the nature and pattern of a population's demand for holiday and travel. It can also explain
why the populations of some countries have a high propensity to participate in tourism and travel compared to
other countries. The decrease in disposable income consequent upon immense decline in income and
employment opportunities, especially in the developed economies. The study also point outs that, Fluctuations in
exchange rates are one of the determinants for tourists. And also the main health factors like outbreak of
contagious disease like H1N1 influenza virus and its spread. Besides this, geographic factors such as climate,
topography, coastal landscape etc. also play varying roles but these are preferential aspects rather than
determining elements. The study also depicts that prices of tourism products may not follow the general
principle of price due to the factors economies of scale, advancement in transport and communication
technology, deregulation of air transport and stronger competition. The remedial measure to overcome the
determining factors are to reduce the product prices, especially accommodation and airfares, reduction of tax
rates specific to these segments can be considered. The volume and growth of the population in the generating
markets are considered to be key factors in shaping overall demand patterns. Then, in many cases, it is not just
the volume of population that matters but size of the relevant market segments of different age groups,
purchasing power, willingness to purchase etc. This can be achievable only through the implementation of
existing management plans and efforts being made to come up with a inclusive policies and integrated
management plan should be designed such that the use of tourism resources in India, benefits the present
generations while at the same time not making vulnerable changes to existing resources for the benefit of future
generations from the same resources.
Key words: Tourism, growth rate, Tourism Demand, Foreign Exchange Earnings
I.
Introduction
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II.
The global economy is undergoing one of the worst crises ever. Similarly, tourism business has not
encountered a setback of present magnitude in the recent times and it has been on downward spiral in India as
well. Perhaps, a major constraint in strategically responding to the demand crisis has been lack of quality
knowledge/ information base, particularly real causes of the crisis and the consequences. The present study aims
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III.
The major problems are need to preserve the environment and natural resources, the need for
education, proper understanding for both tourists and local people, and the need to generate a democratic
movement which helps people at all levels to participate in tourism development. Also they need to focus on
occupation training, handicraft promotion, and improvement of both the landscape and the basic infrastructure,
to increase the villagers' quality of life by creating a healthy environment. The cooperative system in rural
tourism can be an effective approach in bringing positive impact in rural areas. Local people can monitor and
control the negative impacts of tourism on their own society, if they have an equal stake and authority in
management and development.
The determinants of tourism demand are those factors with propensities to shape the nature and pattern
of a population's demand for holiday and travel. These can also explain why the population of some countries
have a high propensity to participate in tourism and travel compared to many other countries. Equally important
is that while formulating the determinants, one needs to be cautious in distinguishing between the motivation
and buyer behavior. Available literature on tourism demand provides a variety of factors determining in nature.
Major ones are given below:
1. Economic determinants
2. Time availability
3. Demographic factors
4. Legislation Problems
5. Lack of Trained Manpower
6. Insufficient Financial Support
7. Lack of Local Involvement
8. Underdeveloped people
9. Lack of proper physical communications
10. Lack of Basic Education
11. Language problems
12. Business Planning Skills
13. Trained tourist guide
14. Communication Skills
1 Economic determinant
Probably, most important amongst the demand determinants is the economic factors, especially,
national income or disposable income of the tourist generating countries. Mostly, countries with higher national
income are situated in the developed parts of the world. In late 1990s, there were 30 countries of origin that
accounted for over 90 per cent of the world international tourist spending. In terms of tourist spending also, a
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2 Time availability
It is to acknowledge that availability of time for travel is a prerequisite for tourism to happen.
Invariably, availability of free time has been a major determinant for many decades. But, it no longer has critical
role because over the years, duration of the paid leaves has been reduced significantly in most of the developed
countries. Notwithstanding, it is still a determining element in developing countries and in countries like Japan
and USA (WTO 1999).
3 Demographic factors
The demographic factors play equally important roles. For, the volume and growth of the population in
the generating markets are considered to be key factors in shaping overall demand patterns. Then, in many
cases, it is not just the volume of population that matters but size of the relevant market segments (age-wise),
purchasing power, willingness to purchase etc. Besides this, geographic factors such as climate, terrain, coastal
landscape etc. also play varying roles but these are preferential aspects rather than determining elements.
Again, there are also many socio-cultural and political attributes that shape demand patterns viz. government
regulations, political stability of the destination, marketing the destination etc. However, it is considerably
difficult to obtain quantitative data on these in such a manner to incorporate those in the tourism demand
analysis in a meaningful way.
4 Legislation Problems
Tourism is a part of an entertainment industry. All hotels, motels and cottage having license are paying
taxes to the government. According some respondent, the rural tourism should have a tax holiday or it should be
tax free. The government should encourage rural tourism to grow. But the question arise, who will be ultimately
benefited by not charging the tax. Urban entrepreneurs will be encouraged to participate in rural tourism the
villagers who will extend their services will be benefited indirectly. There could be law and order problem. Any
outside can come and pollute the environment by seeing attractive benefits. The woman could be sexually
abused, exploitation of children, underpayment, exploitation of labour, etc. A tour operator can affect natural
beauty and environment of that place.
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8 Underdeveloped people
The vast majority of the rural populations are uneducated and literate; they are bounded by the
traditional values and customs. Their culture, religion, superstition have a strong influence on their attitudes and
behaviours. The paces of life of the villagers are very slow and they have a tendency to stick to their traditional
jobs whether they are remunerative or not, they are not much interested to take up risk. But it has been observed
that after globalization the rural economy started showing the aspiration to grow, the media is playing an
important role in changing the mindset of the rural consumer. Through television they got exposure to different
products and services. They are exposed to different technology by provided through government or nongovernment initiatives. For development of rural tourism they need understand the urbanites.
11 Language problems
There are 16 recognized languages and 850 dialects in India. Although Hindi is an official language,
but in many parts of India people do not understand it. Either the rural people have upgrade them to
communicate with the urbanites otherwise they will not going to get much benefit from the rural tourism. The
villagers not only have to educate themselves but they have to understand Hindi to interact with the Indian
customer and English to communicate with the foreign customers.
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14 Communication Skills
Language and education is the basic hindrance in communication. The ability to communicate
effectively is essential. Much of success will depend on your ability to give warm welcome to tourists. Adequate
capability to communicate to convince the tourist during horse-trekking, camel riding or some other physical
activity in which safety is an element is very important. After seeing a historic site or buildings if tourist
generates some interest to know more and if there is no one to answer those questions, it will create negative
impacts. They have to understand the tourist wants and needs. There should not be any communication gap
between the guest and the host.
Problems of tourists during travel are many and exist in every facet of their journey. However, what
distract them are its relative severity and the difficulty in dealing with some of the severe problems. It is natural
for the destination managers therefore to be concerned about the problems because tourist satisfaction is relative
and largely connected to quality of their direct encounters with the people, facilities or overall quality of
environment. Equally important is that pre-visit perception of destinations is a close correlate of overall
destination environment, including safety and security. Given these, positive image is critical to competitive
sustenance of destinations because as Roehl & Fesenmaier (1992) observed, tourists make their travel decisions
based on perceptions rather than reality. Specifically, risk perception and not the facts or actual risk factors that
influence tourists' behaviour, eventually motivating them to avoid or cancel travel to particular destinations
(Irvine and Anderson 2006). Needlessly, news reports and word-of-mouth on epidemics and terrorism at tourist
destinations could also raise consumers' perceptions of risks. Perhaps, due to its credibility and ability to reach
wider and large audiences in a short span of time, media turns particularly influential in changing/modifying
people's perceptions of destinations (Tasci & Gartner, 2007). This becomes more critical when tourists lack
credible information on destinations.
In outline, major problems of tourists as being revealed in this study based on priority basis. Many of
these have been indeed in the public domain very much. Experiences are such that solving some of those should
not be a difficult task. What would be needed is prioritization of those problems sets and accordingly initiating
pre emptive actions by concerned stakeholders. As regards to those issues and constraints which are more
complex and multi-faceted, concerted policy interventions and effective coordination would be required to put
India on a competitive track.
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IV.
Conclusion
Tourism and travel service is a major industry attention in the world. Many countries by realizing the
significance of this sector are trying to strengthen it. Many developing as well as developed countries are
making serious efforts to reshape the tourism sector. Since the tourism has capacity to generate foreign
exchange through attracting thee foreign tourist. India is expected to be the second fastest growing tourism
nation in the world over the period 2005-2014.In 2007 around 5.08 million tourists arrived in India and they
spent nearly US 11 million dollars. It contributes significantly to the creation of employment opportunities,
income and harmony. India has taken many steps to improve tourism in the last 50 years. Though there an
increase in the absolute numbers of tourist arrivals but share of India to total world tourism arrivals and earning
is very low this is due to factors which affect the tourism demand in India. The major factors like economic
factors, demographic factors, Time availability, Legislation Problems like government has just started
promoting rural tourism. Central government and State government should encourage rural tourism by
providing financial support to start the project. Because it will create employment in rural areas and it will also
help in flow of fund from urban to rural. It can help in preventing the migration of people from rural area to
urban areas. Lack of Trained Manpower especially in hotel management may not be interested to go to rural
area to work. The rural people who will be appointed are required to be trained for discharging their duties.
Decorating the cottages or suites and maintain them. Serving foods to the visitors, to understand the taste of the
customers, either it should be local cuisine or different type of India cuisine or continental dishes. Lacks of
Local Involvement ever since the rural people do not have awareness and skills to engage them in different
actions. They may get the jobs of unskilled worker. The rural people need to develop the knowledge and skill to
have an elevated contribution in rural tourism. The basic concept behind rural tourism is to emphasize on
participation of rural people. But in practice local people are hardly ever involved in decision making, planning
and implementing policies. Most of the rural people do not have much knowledge of tourism, and are misled by
outside investors who hope to take most of the economic benefits from rural areas. Consequently, local people
become confused about what kind of tourism they want to establish in their own area. Thus, there is an ample
scope for enhancing the Indias share in world tourism once we minimize these determinant factors through
expansion of world class infrastructure facilities. There is need to develop a policy protection force in almost all
the tourist destinations. This will certainly be helpful for improvement of economic conditions of our Indian
people besides earning foreign exchange.
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