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MP, the heart of India, accelerates efforts to boost tourism


NEW DELHI:
From heritage sites to national parks, Madhya Pradesh has among the most attractive destinations in India. Yet it has failed to get foreign tourists much like other states including Rajasthan or Kerala. In an interview, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, principal secretary to chief minister & tourism, government of Madhya Pradesh says there are challenges like limited international connectivity. Now, the state is overcoming some of these hurdles to increase domestic and foreign tourist arrivals to some of the most alluring destinations anywhere in India, across Madhya Pradesh. Edited excerpts:

How big is tourism in Madhya Pradesh?

In terms of domestic arrivals, we are number eight with 8 crore (80 million) tourists now. If you talk of foreign tourists, we are number 13 with close to four lakh arrivals every year.

A problem with international tourism growth is connectivity. We do not have any international flights in order to actually go international. We have Indore and Bhopal as international airports. Bhopal is very new. Indore airport operates just one Air India flight to Sharjah.

Madhya Pradesh has among the most attractive destinations in India. So, what’s the plan to improve the rankings?

Marketing efforts till now were largely based on the whole state. We are now focusing more on specific locations and itineraries, that is one. Our next ad campaign will be basically itineraries and location based, not the whole state. Second we are creating more experiences, which is basically village tourism, homestays, doing more offbeat locations which have not been seen or covered giving tourists more experiences.

Then we are doing festivals like the Orchha festival, a three-day event from 6 to 8 March. We’ve just done a Mandu festival. Then, we also did a Hanuwantiya festival.

There are lot of national parks and heritage sites to attract tourists…

Yes, Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Pench, are among the famous parks and there are these tourist groups, brought in by the big tour operators. Taj and Oberoi have properties in these national parks. There are other chains.

Among the traditional things in Madhya Pardesh are heritage sites. Heritage is mostly northern part of the state. So you have Gwalior, Orchha, Khajuraho, Chanderi, a bit in Mandu and some sites around Bhopal like Sanchi, Bhimbetka and Bhopal. Then there is the religious circuit which includes Ujjain, Mahakal then the wildlife which is largely the eastern part of the state.

Who is a typical tourist in Madhya Pradesh? Is it foreign, Indian, families, groups or individuals?

When I talk about domestic, it’s more of families. When I talk of international it’s more of groups.

And if you do a little break up there, international groups would mostly be retired people coming in. Very small number of young and bagpackers coming in. And since we are developing adventure tourism in a big way with camping and all that, I think it will attract the younger crowds.

How do you plan to attract foreign tourists?

To get international tourists, you have to plan at least a year in advance. If you’re coming from US or Europe, you need to plan and book in advance. We have started packaging these locations and we bought in companies to do them. So now it’s in the interest of these companies to also market the destinations.

For example, for Orchha we are getting a lot of destination management companies and tour operators and the big companies that do foreign tourists from Delhi and NCR to go there and be there for three days, They get an idea of the place then they can start selling it to foreign tourists. Same is for Mandu, Hanuwantiya, Chhindwara also. In four or five years these products will stabilize and then people will come. That’s the idea.


Budget travelers need affordable accommodations. On this front what is the situation?


Madhya Pradesh is not a very costly destination. So, be it MP state Tourism Development Corporation or in the private sector properties, its not very expensive compared to other destinations. It’s mid to lower middle-income state and eating out, travelling etc is quite affordable.

States like Rajasthan have been able to do a better job of attracting tourists.

Rajasthan has definitely done better in terms of foreign tourists, because of its international connectivity. It’s domestic connectivity is also better. It started much earlier than MP and the tourism infrastructure there is better than in MP. These are things we are working on. In Rajasthan the private sector has developed lot of properties. Many of them are being used as a wedding destination and other such products.

So, we are working on it, we have a lot of heritage places and such properties with us also. We are marketing them.

What’s the focus of the tourism policy?

The last policy was in 2016 and revised in 2019. We have increased the amount of subsidy for projects, we have increased the number of projects,

We have given extra benefits for branded hotels chains. There are benefits comparable to among the best in the country. And for film tourism, it has two parts. One is the traditional incentive subsidy given and the second part is if you are using local talent, you’re promoting the state, then you get added benefits.

Young travelers are motivated a lot by what they see on social media. Do you have any social media strategy or campaign?

We are on all the platforms. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, we are there on all the platforms. There are promotional campaigns also and organically also, there’s a lot of activity on our platforms.

What are the challenges you see in increasing tourism in MP?

So, one is international connectivity. If connectivity improves it’ll bring in a lot of tourists. Second is visibility for the international visitors. National visibility is there. International visibility is of destinations like Khajuraho, that’s been there for a very long time. So along with Khajuraho what else the state has to offer, and what are the other options or generally knowing about the state like they know about other states especially Kerela and Rajasthan. That kind of international visibility is not there in MP. We need to improve on that.


Where do you see Madhya Pradesh Tourism in say the next three to five years?


Domestic tourism will definitely go up a lot. And international, once we sort out our connectivity issues, will also increase. There is a lot of interest and companies are also looking at it. Besides lot of jobs will also be created. For every dollar invested tourism creates among the highest number of jobs. Our target is to create around five lakh jobs in the next five years in tourism alone.

Are there programs to inform tourists who come to say Khajuraho about other places in Madhya Pradesh so they might get interested in visiting?

Usually it’s a pre-planned itinerary. But we now will be giving them more ideas on what is available around any destination. So, be it rural tourism, arts & crafts or any specific experience which is there in and around any destination. Even adventure and camping and other things which are available. So tourists can have varied experiences.

Lonely Planet has ranked MP as one of the world’s most affordable destinations. It has put our destinations like wildlife, Orchha and Mandu as value for money destinations. We are the tiger state with the highest number of tigers. Then there are other ways in which we trying to promote, in big events like International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) will be held in MP now.





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