Enhancing the Pro-Poor Benefits of Tourism at ‘Bottom of Pyramid

Tourism has become one of the world’s most important instruments for economic prosperity, employment generation and community empowerment. It stimulates growth through sustainable enterprise creation, livelihood generation, foreign exchange revenues, reducing poverty and inequality, preserving natural and cultural heritage, and upgrading infrastructure particularly in remote and backward areas. Tourism, if properly planned and managed, can be one of the most promising sectors for achieving a more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future. Ideally, tourism should be non-exploitative, equitable and sustainable. The conceptualization of Brokers-Locals-Tourists (BLT) model reveals that tourism dynamics depend on these three kinds of actors in tourism value chain (TVC). But in reality, communities at Bottom of Pyramid (BoP), faced many challenges viz. poverty and desperation, lower Human Development Index, social decay, political chaos, non-empowerment, poor infrastructure, diminishing control over the natural resource, persistent threats of eviction from their natural habitat, inequality in distribution of wealth and opportunities and exclusion from participation in development process. Who really benefits from tourism? How can we improve the process of tourism development and enhance its benefits at ‘Bottom of Pyramid (BoP)’ in rural and /or peripheral region? 

Indigenous Tourism Development in Tribal Ecology: Conceptualizing a Framework for Sustainable Livelihood

The importance of tourism as an instrument of economic development and employment generation particularly in remote and backward areas has been well appreciated over the world. Some tribes consider tourism one of their significant cultural, social and economic development priorities, while others do not want to increase it in their ecology. In fact indigenous tourism has not been fully harnessed due to the high sensitivity of the subject, lack of scientific data and its overwhelming international and domestic nature. The approaches to tourism development in tribal ecology are as unique as the tribes themselves. Issues on sustainable livelihood promotion have become a key driver of the social, economic and political agendas in India. Since the adoption of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), the term ‘Sustainable Livelihood’ has become a central theme in tourism development. The need of the hour is to ponder on how sustainability and bio-cultural diversity override development agenda and how a new set of goals might promote sustainable livelihood of indigenous people of India.Community Capacity Building (CCB); Community Owned Enterprises(COEs); Public-Private- Community Partnership(PPCP); Community Institutional Development(CID); Bio-Cultural Sustainability(BCS); Stakeholders Collaboration and Networking(SCN); Improved Livelihood(IL); Community Investment Fund(CIF) and Corporate Social Responsibility have been identified as key indicators of sustainable livelihood framework. 

Changing Landscape of Tourism in India

The major future tourism destination will be Asia and Pacific particularly India. In India, tourism has been recognized as cornerstone agenda in ‘Prime Ministry Modi’s 4-T Model’. The Government of India has adopted skill development as a national priority in order to create skill manpower. Furthermore, Upcoming of new Central Universities (CUs) across the states of India, expanding campus of IITTMs, National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) particularly implementation of ‘National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF)’ at CBSC schools, ‘SKILL INDIA’ and consideration of tourism and hospitality as thrust sector in ‘Make in India’ have huge implication for tapping the potential demographic dividend for tourism industry and academia. The changing landscape of tourism business and the organizations which operate in it need knowledgeable and skill manpower to make significant contribution for economic and social development of India. These evolving initiatives can play great role in shaping the future of tourism education in India.

MBA(TOURISM) @ Department of Tourism Studies, Pondicherry Central University

Department of Tourism Studies (DTS) has very clear purpose to impart competency based quality education and produce quality human resource for academia and industry. The DTS’s MBA (Tourism) programme has been design to produce capable human resources that are passionate about working in tourism and allied sectors and making difference in academia and industry.  MBA (Tourism) programme has a deep integration of theory and practices that include the curriculum, learning process and field work. Life at DTS is  not just about lecture, case study, quiz, role play, extempore and presentations  but it also give students an overall opportunities to get hand –on experience of working in travel companies through summer and final placements and participation in many more curricular events. Students find these opportunities great way to learn and think out of the box. I had an opportunity to work with Cox and Kings India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi and SOTC, Kolkata as summer intern and Management Trainee (MT) respectively have been enriching experience for me. The experience was really enriching for me. Apart from this, state of the art infrastructure of university provided with vibrant learning environment that combines academic rigour with intense co- curricular activities like Aakanksha, World Tourism Day, National Tour and many more student driven events inside and outside the campus. This all have been just possible because of dynamic campus environment and committed faculty.

Tourism Higher Education in Indian: A Critical Analysis

HOSTOCON 2016, Punjab University, Chandigarh

Education and its effectiveness are universal issues which have a bearing on the development of nation. Therefore, the educational systems that churn out tourism education in large proportion assume considerable significance here. In the last twenty years, the growth of tourism education in India has been phenomenal. At present, good numbers of High Performing Knowledge Institutions (HPKIs) offer different programs at varying levels, including certificates, diplomas, under- graduate, post- graduate and doctoral degrees in tourism related domain. Change in curriculum, contents and structure of tourism education and reshaping it to meet the need of industry should top priority tasks. Tourism academia needs to provide the insight; skills and attitude to students in order take complex leadership challenges in tourism industry. In today’s highly competitive market economy network between academic research and industry operation has become imperative for the success of both the academia and industry. The emphasis of tourism education should be on fostering the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in the students. Institutes need to development synergistic partnership with tourism industry and transfer the knowledge to business entities. The dynamic nature of tourism industry makes it imperative for tourism educators and researchers to roll out the curriculum and programme that will be most in-line with the needs of the industry, society and environment. Tourism education needs to consider new approaches and curriculum change, if its graduate is to provide effective leadership in a multicultural –multidimensional economy.