Says Union Minister for Culture and tourism, Ganendra Singh Shekhawat, at the inauguration of the FHRAI Sustainability Summit
“When we talk tourism, we talk sustainability. We can all see the situation around the world. Opportunities are knocking at our door, so are the challenges that we can all see before us.
Ten, fifteen years ago, maybe more, when climate change had begun to become the talk of that time, when scientists were looking worried, when people talked of this challenge, people tended not to look upon it seriously enough, a fact that defies logic, why we did not act then, and the results are here for us to see. Then, we did not take action.
What we had then considered the challenge is at our door, now, it is here. The challenge which we failed to consider seriously enough, a challenge for the coming generations, now it’s knocking at our door. And we are all standing, watching the impact, feeling and seeing its impact.
Seven days ago, I went to Odisha. And the temperature in that city, it was 43.6% degree. And the way we can see the change clearly, rainfall patterns have changed, the season’s patterns are changing, erratic, scanty rail falls are happening, our glaciers are sinking, glacial lakes and what not, and the challenge of climate change is in front of the world. If that time, we had taken more positive action, perhaps, we could have delayed this a little.
Today, the situation is exactly the same in front of our tourism sector. And people realise that tourism is going to become a big driver of this economic development. And the way the whole world accepts this, you are people of the financial world, you understand this better than me. That India is developing and fast. Now, in Davos, many people have also discussed this that the Indian economy is going to grow double in every 7 years or 8 years’ time. And it will double in 7-8 years. If you look at it from that perspective, then in the coming 20-25 years, when India will be developed, the way the Prime Minister imagines it, we will have an economy of 4 trillion, 8 trillion, 8 trillion, 16 trillion, and 32 trillion.
And the way the estimates are today, the way India’s economy is growing, and the growth of the economy and the growth of tourism, where the economy and tourism growth are inter-connected and identical. And the way the world is looking at India, with both speed and scale that is being projected, and in such a situation, tourism is going to grow much faster than the economy. In such a situation, there is a challenge of sustainability before this tourism development for the world; but there is a bigger challenge for India. The government is aware, and determined to solve it.
So, we have identified Green Leaf certification in evaluating projects that will receive our financial support. This is one big parameter that has been identified. We have to look at the sustainability of the project. We have to look at the sustainability evaluation carried out from the state level. Until unless it becomes everyone’s business, and each and every stakeholder is part and parcel of this change, unless everyone takes cognizable responsibility, we will not be able to bring about a quantum change in this task. Implementation of our resolve depends upon collective responsibility.
Therefore, today, sustainability in tourism is an issue much like climate change was an issue some 30 years ago. And if we are not going to take up the challenge seriously enough, we will have much to repent. We are that same threshold again, when the challenge is before us, we can see it, but will we act upon it timely enough and strongly enough, that is the challenge. When the climate change was a challenge, the world was facing the same challenges. And I think now we have a great example to learn from. And I am very happy that with the help of industry leadership, we are able to play our role in this. We are able to talk about such contemporary subjects, the outcome of this leadership gathering, the nectar which is going to come out, let us all pledge ourselves to work towards what we identify is the solution. That we will translate this into action, and we will identify our responsibilities in it. And we will work to achieve that. So, definitely, the question of sustainability that has started to come to our minds today, should impact our work, should impact our sector. should impact our work, should impact our sector, before that we will be able to address it.”
