Indian Tourism : An OverviewTourism will expand greatly in future mainly due to the revolution that is taking place on both the demand and supply side. The Changing population structure, improvement in living standard, more disposable income, fewer working hours and long leisure time, better educated people, ageing population and more curious youth in the developed as well as developing countries, all will fuel the tourism industry growth.

The arrival of a large number of customers, better educated and more sophisticated, will compel the tourist industry to launch new products and brands and re-invents traditional markets. The established traditional destinations founded on sun-sea-sand products will have to re-engineer their products. They must diversify and improve the criteria for destinations and qualities of their traditional offers. Alongside beach tourism, the tourism sector will register a steady development of new products based on natural resources promoting the rural business, leisure and art and culture. Thus the study of new markets and emerging markets and necessity of diversified products are the basis of our strategy, which can enhance and sustain, existing and capture new markets.

HELICOPTER TOURISM IN INDIA

Helicopters have the advantage of linking inaccessible areas particularly in the hills and ensuring comfortable and short journeys over difficult terrain, which would take a long time by road. This sector is being expanding day by day with the increase awareness among masses about utility of helicopters for tourism purposes in the form of convenience, time saving etc. The usage of helicopter by the general public in the tourism industry is growing, especially with the regular passenger services connecting important tourist and religious places. This also caters to the requirement of large section of people who find it difficult to otherwise commute either due to health or age considerations.

AIR TAXI SERVICE

With the Bihar government’s initiation to start air taxi services to ferry tourists to different tourist sites scattered across the state. We are planning to launch air taxi service by using Bell Commercial helicopters to link various Buddhist sites scattered across Bihar. The system is expected to start from the next year. What actually encouraged us in starting this project was owing to the increasing number of foreigners visiting Bihar and the inconveniences being faced by them in reaching the tourist sites.

For this purpose we have selected two helicopters suiting this particular range.

The Bell 407- Air Supremacy

The 206L4 Longranger IV – Ready whenever you want

THE BELL 407Chrome-plated exhaust pipes not yet standard. The full integration of speed, performance and maneuverability. Reliable beyond measure.Outfitted with a spacious cabin that seat up to seven, configurable for an array to tasks and payloads. Composite dynamic components and unmatched rotor authority for an incredibly smooth ride in virtually all conditions. The 407 is the first choice for ensuring performance.

407 HIGHLIGHTS

1. Superior performance with the best speed, payload and range available in its class.2. Superior power to weight ratio.3. Exceptional passenger comfort with the smoothest ride in its class and wide- open club seating

for unparalleled visibility.4. Pilot- friendly attributes such as a twist grip throttle on the collective and a FADEC for the engine.5. The high performance, combat proven, composite dynamic components of the OH-58D Kiowa

Warrior for unmatched handling.

Increased power and decreased noise are no longer incompatible. The 407’s sophisticated engine and composite rotor ensure a smooth ride and drastically quieter operation.

THE BELL 206L-4 LONGRANGER IVThe Longranger IV is a remarkable combination of power, room and range. Innovative doors and a spacious cabin make the Longranger IV ideal for corporate, EMT, utility or law enforcement. And a better power margin means you’re flying higher and further.

Longranger IV Highlights

1. The patended Nodal Beam suspension system for the smoothest ride available and club passenger seating for face-to-face conversation.

2. Wide opening doors and a roomy cabin ideal for cargo hauling and law enforcement missions.3. A simple high inertia two-bladed rotor system for superior safety and excellent autorotation

characteristics. 4. An overall best value offering, this simple and durable design which incorporate a powerful and

reliable 650 horsepower engine makes the 206L-4 the best 7-place light helicopter available foe the money.

5. Lowest operating costs in class6. Superior autorotation characteristics 7. Robust cabin structure

8. Collective mounted throttle9. Rupture resistant fuel cells10. Shoulder harnesses

Inside and out, the Longranger IV represents leading edge design. Whether you’re a CEO who wants to get business done in the air, on an EMT who wants to save cabin, a high visibility cockpit, and a high performance Rolls- Royce engine with power to spare, even in hot weather. You name the time and the place. The Longranger IV is ready to take you there..

KEY DRIVERS: TOURISM

1. Commercial Importance of Tourism:

The World tourism industry accounts for direct employment to over 144 million persons and persons and manifold indirect employment. For the present, however, India has 0.4 per cent share of world tourism. International tourism industry has 10.2 per cent share of the global GDP with 10.6 per cent of the global work force being engaged in tourism. In India tourism and travel sector generate employment to 9.3 million people with optimism of raising this to 12.9 million jobs to the people by 2010. This will mean the tourism industry providing job to one person out of 15 people by 2010 in the country. Every rupee sent by a tourist in the state changes hands thirteen times. Every hotel room generates direct employment to three persons and indirect employment opportunities to eight persons.

2. Role of State Government:

As a catalyst. As promoter, facilitators and infrastructure provider. As pioneer, planner and joint investor with private groups to boost tourism. As formulator of plans and policies. Maintenance of law and order. Deploying tourist police force. Disposing grievances. Standardizing quality of tourism product and services. Enacting suitable laws for tourism. Framing Rules and Regulations for tourism development.

3. Timely execution of policies, qualitative improvement and up gradation of comprehensive master plan of the state with a focus on regional, sub-regional areas and tourist circuits etc.

External assistance. Central assistance. State Government Assistance. Private Sector Investment for a planned tourism development and creation of infrastructure.

4. Basic Infrastructure for Tourism:

Keeping in view a great potential of tourism in Bihar, the creation of basic infrastructure for tourism development is imperative. Important components for infrastructural development are – Arranging accommodation for increased number of tourist, building of highways on tourist circuits, international level airport with total aviation back up and facilities, local transport, rail routes linking tourist spots with full amenities and facilities , the vital telecommunication link, continuous quality electricity supply with elaborate arrangements and other essential amenities.

Religious circuits for the Boudh, Jain , Hindu, Sikh and Islam religious are to be developed with special work plans to promote religious tourism making the religious circuits attractive with suitable tour packages and facilities. Hindu, Boudh, Jain, Ramayan, Sufi, Gandhi and Eco tourim have to find profound expression in development of tourist sites and spots.

The State government as well as the private sector shall contribute their mite in growth of tourism infrastructure with the state playing the lead role of a catalytic agent in some sectors. The state will endeavor to promote private sector participation in infrastructural development for the tourism industry. Efforts will made to dovetail external assistance, central assistance and state plan resources with private investments to attain the set goals as under the Master Plan. The State government will prepare an area-based Master Plan for developing infrastructure as necessary for the respective areas and regions. Potential of the tourist destinations will figure in developing the tourism sector as per the Master Plan. The Master Plan will evolve Investment Plan for segment wise (area wise) tourism development. The investment plan would be further subdivided into annual action plans to achieve the set growth targets as per the directed goals under the Master Plan to be achieved in a time bound manner. New areas to be brought under pursuit of tourism development are water tourism, health tourism, Ayurvedic medicine, Yoga, Spiritual tourism, tourism entailing courageous feats, promotion of Shilp Gram (Craft Village) and development of recreational facilities to attract tourists. Tourism entails multi-sectoral activities with participation of several agencies. Efforts will be made to coordinate the agencies participating in the tourism development endeavor by evolving suitable administrative mechanism.

Foreign Tourists:

The foreign tourist’s arrivals (FTAs) in India during the year 2008 were 5.37 million (Provisional) as compared to 5.08 in 2007, registering a growth of 5.6%. FTAs during the period January- March 2009 were 14.16 lakh with a growth rate of (-) 13.8% as compared to the FTAs of 16.94 lakh and growth rate of 12.2% during January- March 2008. Tourism is an important sector of Indian economy and contributes substantially in the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism during 2008 n US$ terms are estimated at 11.75 billion as compared to 10.73 billion during 2007, registering a growth of 9.5%. FEE from tourism in US$ terms during the period January-March 2009 were US$ 2731 million with a growth rate of (-) 30.6% as compared to the FEE of US$ 3935 million with a growth rate of 31.3% during January-March 2008. In rupee terms, the FEE from tourism during 2008 are estimated at Rs.50730 crore as compared to Rs.44360 crore during 2007, showing a growth of 14.4% . FEE from tourism in rupee terms, during January-March 2009 were Rs.13582 crore with a growth of (-) 13.2%, as compared to the FEE of Rs.15655 crore with a growth rate of 18.2% during January-March 2008.

TOURISM AND HOSPILIALITY India offers myriad exciting experiences to tourists. Tourism industry in India is being utilized as a powerful tool to facilitate international understanding and enable building of broader culture horizons. According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 brought out by World Economic Forum, India is ranked 11th in the Asia- Pacific region and 62nd overall in a list of 133 assessed countries in 2008, up three places since 2007. In terms of travel, India stands 9 th in the index of relative cost of access (ticket taxes and airport charges) to international air transport services, having almost the lowest costs in the world.

Also according to the report, India has been rated as well for its natural resources (ranked 14 th) and cultural resources (24th), with many World Heritage sites, both natural and cultural, rich fauna, and strong creative industries in the country. India also has quite a good air transport network (ranked 37 th), particularly given the county’s stage of development, and a reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked 49th). India is ranked 7th in terms of number of World Heritage cultural sites, according to a UNESCO report (2008).

India is ranked 1st with regard to tourism fair attendance. Also, according to the International Congress and Convention Association, India is rated 33rd in terms of number of international fairs and exhibitions held in the country annually (average for 2006-07).

The World Travel and Tourism Report for 2009 for 180 countries worldwide also ranks the Indian Travel and Tourism economy 14th in absolute size worldwide, 144th in relative contribution to national economies and 5th in long-term (10 years) growth. The contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be at 6.0 per cent (US$ 67.3 billion) in 2009 rising to US$ 187.3 billion by 2019.