A recent study by PHD Chamber reveals that Northern Region has seen a drastic fall in share of tourist arrivals from 70% in 1980 to 38% in 2007. During the period 2004-06, North recorded a share of 39%. Tourist arrivals to Southern India have been increasing at 14 % from 2004-07. Southern Region, comprising of four states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and  Kerala account for 45% of overall tourist arrivals into the country.  Andhra Pradesh had a share of 23% of the total tourist traffic in India in 2006 and continues to hold the number one position during 2007. Uttar Pradesh holds the second rank, while Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan fall at number 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

State	Domestic	Foreign	Total	Rank
Andhra Pradesh	127933333	769724	128703057	1
Uttar Pradesh	116244008	1493157	117737165	2
Tamil Nadu	71034651	1703103	72737754	3
Karnataka	37825953	534563	38360516	4
Rajasthan	25920529	1401042	27321571	5
Maharashtra	19243597	1919491	21163088	6
Uttarakhand	19803280	95976	19899256	7
West Bengal	18580669	1154770	19735439	8
Madhya Pradesh	13894500	234204	14128704	9
Gujarat	13477316	104158	13581474	10

At present, India’s share of global tourism is a pathetic 0.5%. If we are to get a bigger slice of the global tourism pie, then there are some issues that need to be dealt on a war footing and State Governments have a significant role to play in taking corrective action.

Hotel tariff in India is very high because municipal bodies auction land for building hotels, which makes it difficult for hoteliers to construct budget hotels. Taxes, such as luxury tax at the state level, also increase the cost of hotel accommodation. High taxation, differential rates of taxes in various states on tourist vehicles, entry tax, and parking charges at each state/destination push up the cost of tourist transport, another key segment of the sector and also subject the tourists to avoidable harassment because the vehicle needs to stop at each state border to pay the taxes. It is estimated that all these factors make India more expensive by 25 to 30 per cent as compared with other tourist destinations in the region.

As per 2007 statistics, Northern region has 20094, South has 30117, West has 30861 and East has 5867 hotel rooms available. PHD Chamber is hopeful that the tax incentives given by GOI to construct budget hotels would help in mitigating the demand-supply gap. To speed up the creation of additional rooms, State Government intervention is crucial in order to increase the supply of land, relax the municipal and zone restrictions, provide single window and expeditious clearance through investor-friendly policies.

PHD Chamber has also identified four strategies for future tourism planning, namely, public-private partnership in marketing and infrastructure development; cleaning and beautification drive for important tourism areas, developing innovative themes to promote tourism and an implementation plan within a fixed time frame.

The State Governments in the northern region should jointly consider new tourism products such as:

1. Himalayan Tourism by integrating J&K, HP and Uttaranchal
2. Desert to mountain tourism, (Thar to Himalayas)
3. Open up valleys in Hill states by providing helicopter services and promote lesser known destinations.
4. Combining festivals of Northern States to provide more tourist attractions. Each State organises festivals like the Pushkar Mela, Qutab Festival, Khajuraho festival, Amir Khusro festival etc. Festivals, which are not annual events and are not held on fixed dates could be combined with these to offer a festival itinerary to tourists.
5. The States should identify and link villages rich in folk arts, cuisine and heritage that could be developed for rural tourism in the northern region.  2-3 days itinerary may be evolved with connectivity through trains on the lines of Shatabdi.

It is a matter of concern that since the 7th plan, many projects funded by the Ministry of Tourism are still under implementation and asset creation has not led to development of tourism since the State Governments do not have resources to operate and manage these assets on a sustainable basis and hence the money spent has not been put to productive use. Also, projects, which have been identified till now, are not all of national importance.

PHD Chamber has suggested that long-term perspective development plans be formulated with an effective monitoring mechanism, provide better connectivity and access to tourist destinations. Product development is crucial through proper infrastructure before marketing of the destination. This should include roads, parking areas, amenities at the tourist site, availability of trained guides and souvenirs for taking home as memoirs.

Providing road links to all the places of tourist interest is an important pre-requisite.  This involves the improvement of State Highways and District Roads. PWD and urban development department funds may be dovetailed with that of tourism. Also, high-speed rail links should be introduced so as to reduce the passenger’s surface transport time for commuting to and from the airports. Connectivity to the airport through railway lines is a must for the convenience of passengers.