Tourism Winds Set to Gain Traction in the Himalayas

Never before has tourism held budgetary centre stage… with a wide choice range that loops in the Himalaya-Karakoram (HK), right up to our frontline local communities from the Indus to the Brahmaputra. This initiative positions Ministry of Defence support to Border and Battlefield Tourism, alongside Rural Tourism in Ladakh, packaged green.

In many ways, a Sustainable Tourism Master Plan for Viksit Bharat @2047 has the potential to yield a digital, AI compliant framework for pan-India value chain enhancement.

The first step will require key stakeholders being brought together to judiciously select all-India pilot sites on a hub-and-spoke basis, from amongst India’s present 43 World Heritage Sites and 80 Ramsar Sites, each endowed with definitive tourism equity, targeting a two-part Work Plan per site, namely:

• ‘Software’ Work Plan (primacy for employable skill development);
• ’Hardware’ Work Plan (for ‘hard’ infrastructure, using traditional material/styles/expertise).

The two harmonised Work Plans per site will strengthen fragile habitats unable to leverage visitor footprint, incorporate Tourism Satellite Account, data reliability, overtourism safeguards, regional construction norms, land-use planning, watershed management, waste management and G20 priorities proposed by India, unanimously endorsed by G20* (*Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills, MSMEs, and Destination Management).

The first set of intended outcomes of the Master Plan should be to firm up the methodology for:

1. Implementation support to India-chaired G20 Delhi declaration as proposed by India;
2. G20 Tourism Working Group Roadmap to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals;
3. Ministry of Defence to facilitate Border Tourism, Battlefield Tourism and Rural Tourism in the Himalaya-Karakoram (HK), partnering the Ministry of Tourism and State Administrations:

• The 77 “Defence” sites cover 14 in Ladakh including the Depsang Plain where the Indian Air Force in 1962 made the world’s highest landing (and return take-off), along with Galwan, Demchok where the Indus enters India, 11 in Jammu & Kashmir, 21 in Arunachal Pradesh including Tawang, Bum La, Gorsam, Kameng, Lohit and Walong, and seven sites in Sikkim.
• This first flush should expand to cover the Central Asian watershed sources of our little understood Shyok river, that ultimately feeds the Indus, its life support reputation sullied by a litany of floods that impacted the 55 villages of the Nubra valley. But for pure mountain region exploration, the Shyok is unmatched… the iced-up dam formed by natural forces across the Shyok system was expected to collapse, water volume unleashed creating inestimable havoc. Nevertheless, the dam held at that frenzied time, producing F. Ludlow’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek Shyok visit report of August 1928. However, first, the location… “30 miles-due west of the Karakoram Pass, at an elevation of 20,000 feet, is the head basin of an enormous glacier, the Rimo, first accurately mapped by De Filippi in 1914”, consisting of “three main branches, the Northern, Central, and Southern Rimo. The Northern Rimo throws a tongue of ice over the Central Asian watershed, forming the source of the Yarkand river which flows northwards into Chinese Turkistan, and after traversing the Taklamakan desert, ultimately loses itself in the marshes of Lop Nor.” Ludlow again, “The Central and Southern Rimo branches, draining the northeastern slopes of the Karakoram range, unite about ten miles south of the watershed and form the main source of the Shyok river, which flows south-east and then south through a broad plain for a distance of some nine miles. The valley then contracts rapidly and the river enters a narrow gorge,” almost overlooking which are six magnificent peaks, all over 22,000 feet and one, K31, touches 24,690 feet.” From these descend three glaciers, north to south, named Chong Kumdan, Kichik Kumdan and Aktash.”
• Other instances of a second flush could include the Yarlung Tsangpo’s spectacular ‘great bend’, coming in from western Tibet, deflected south into India by the mammoth bulge of Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri peaks, becoming the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Yet another flush… recalling Gurdial Singh, Master of Geography at The Doon School, in 1954 crossed into Tibet via the Niti Pass and Barahoti Plain within Indian territory to reach sacred Manasarovar, and narrowly missing the summit of Gurla Mandhata 7694m. Again, in 1954, India proposed 22 border passes for trade with China, including the Niti Pass and Kungri Bingri Pass in Barahoti. Finally, only the Niti Pass and Kungri Bingri Pass were included.

4. Other Tourism sector proposals in the current Union Budget, namely:

(i) Centrally Sponsored Schemes to develop top 50 tourist destinations in partnership with the States.

(ii) MUDRA loans for homestays, especially small properties, upscaling tourists’ superior experience.

(iii) Youth skill development, especially hospitality management, to augment employable skill pools.

(iv) Promotion of medical tourism by the Ministry in partnership with the private sector.

(v) Streamlining e-visa facilities and waivers, encouraging overseas tourist groups.

(vi) Promotion of Buddhist Tourism circuit and destinations, and development of spiritual corridors.

(vii) Immediate: Resume Buddhist Circuit Project by the Ministry, partnering WBG-IFC, Bihar and UP.

Drawing product and market advantage from India’s World Heritage Sites and Ramsar Sites, an  all-India site shortlist would be created, inclusive of Cultural, Natural and Protected Area sites.

The Ministry of Tourism’s National Strategy for Rural Homestays – towards Atmanirbhar Bharat – will lead to operational norms and checklists ensuring baseline experience for homestays, chai-shops, tented camps, yurts, monasteries, government/private guest houses; the primary clientele being budget visitors seeking an authentic local way-of-life, family-based participatory experience, acquiring local language capacity, searching for local lore (including sacred groves) through community elders; for market reach, word of mouth ranks high especially via social media.

As a tourism destination reaches its yield plateau, continued success may call for realignments in both product and market profiles, provided by DMOs; thus, in the highly competitive tourism sector, the DMO role arises not only when a destination nears maturity, but also to avoid pre-launch pitfalls, and to maximise market reach, develop and test-market new tourism products. Likewise, a Tourism Calendar such as the Ministry of Tourism Utsav Portal will serve the twin purposes of outreach and recall, ahead of competition. 

In all cases, Site finalisation will be preceded by:

• Baseline diagnostic;
• Firm funds allocation;
• Governance structure;
• Time-lined Work Plans…  also addressing energy, environment, water aspects;
• Implementation responsibility for Focal Point (District Collector/MD-State Tourism), Local Implementation Committee, District Coordination Committee, up to Working Group (WG);
• FAITH (Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism and Hospitality) clear assent; and
• NGO partner’s livelihoods outreach to local women, youth and MSMEs

Similarly, Site finalisation will invariably be followed by:

• Demonstrable local community participation;
• Vigorous Supervision, Monitoring & Evaluation for Work Plan implementation;
• Target shift from merely numerical to yield-based;
• Data reliability;
• Scientific, monitorable indices; and
• Visitor # local adjustment.

The anticipated Vision India@2047 document holds high outputs for India’s GDP. The WG will incorporate this GDP Vision India@2047 ecosystem to project:

• Phased all-season development revenue and yield targets for all segments;
• Equitable local share in livelihoods for supply chain, especially women, youth, MSMEs.

Mid-term assessment for next steps per Vision India@2047, will proceed on same tenets, namely:

• Back-end (product) and front-end (market) readiness;
• Safe environs for domestic and international visitors, investors, and local communities;
• Safeguards and care codes, especially for locally owned natural and cultural assets.

Work Plan amendments, also attributed to baseline parameters (climate, nascent partnerships, host communities, animal and plant species, altitude, forest types, drainage basins, topsoil, geomorphology etc) will invariably require local community’s and WG prior approval.

Taken together, the Master Plan should firmly establish ways and means for:

1. All-season revenue and yield targets for all tourism segments to support Vision India@2047;
2. Equitable local share in livelihoods for supply chain, especially women, youth & MSMEs;
3. Local community and FAITH’s fulsome participation across both Work Plans per site;
4. India’s US$ 3 trillion overall tourism goal through States-Trade stakeholder synergy;
5. Tourism sector contribution of 10% to GDP, against 5.04% at present;
6. Domestic tourism scaled up, backed by infrastructure and skilled workforce expansion;
7. Visitor experience enhancement through Homestays and Destination Management;
8. Competitive market reach;
9. Sustainable reaction to climate change through inclusive growth and community participation.
10. Optimise cross-cutting advantage from all strands of Viksit Bharat and emerging trends.

For strengthening connectivity to key sites: 

• States will provide land for critical infrastructure, including hotels, classified under the Infrastructure Harmonized Master List (HML) to attract investments and boost hospitality services. Thus, 40 projects across 23 states will receive interest-free loans for 50 years, under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment. This will help create globally recognized tourist destinations by facilitating their development and strategic marketing. Additionally, the Swadesh Darshan Scheme 2.0 (SD 2.0), which focuses on sustainable and responsible tourism, will continue to expand, 34 projects having already been approved.
• To strengthen employment in tourism, Government’s allocation for skill development in FY 2025-26 will support intensive skill-development programmes, especially for youth.
• The Government is committed to positioning India as a global leader in tourism, drawing on enhanced infrastructure, boosting employment, and promoting diverse tourism segments, including spiritual, medical, and heritage tourism, focussing on hospitality and other tourism-related services.
• Similarly, for Revitalizing Spiritual Tourism, Government will prioritize pilgrimage and heritage sites, in tandem with the vision to become a key centre for Buddhist tourism, wherein the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) will continue its crucial role, enhancing infrastructure at major pilgrimage sites and heritage cities, ensuring world-class amenities and accessibility for visitors, thereby positioning India as a global cultural hub.
• For Medical Tourism – Strengthening India’s Global Position Through “Heal in India”, the Union Budget 2025-26 prioritizes medical tourism as a key growth driver in partnership with the private sector, leveraging world-class medical expertise, cutting-edge infrastructure, and traditional wellness systems like Ayurveda and Yoga, attaining larger Medical Value Travel (MVT) market share of international patients. The Indian Healthcare Ecosystem is delivering worldclass medical care/treatment across the healthcare spectrum ranging from Modern Medicine, Ayurveda, Yoga, and other Traditional Systems.
• India’s Gyan Bharatam Mission will cover more than one crore manuscripts for which Government will set up a National Digital Repository of Indian knowledge systems for knowledge sharing.
• This multi-dimensional emphasis, underpinned by ‘Seva’ and ‘Atithi Devo Bhava,’ positions India well to redefine its tourism landscape and establish itself as a world-class destination.

For Master Plan progression, two of the Himalaya-Karakoram sustainable development parameters namely ENERGY and TOURISM are presented here to show content depth and variety required in the Master Plan (there being of course other important parameters such as host communities, animal & plant species, altitude, forest types, treeline, grass-line, snowline, drainage basins, topsoil and geomorphology).

Turning to ENERGY, a critical parameter in the evolving global sustainable development landscape, the key nodes include:

• Planet Earth will in the near term face a new energy supply chain, characterised by continued geopolitical hazards, tempered somewhat by availability upswings in supply of multiple fuels and technologies, including oil, liquefied natural gas in 2025-29 plus clean energy technologies especially solar PVC and batteries, thus reducing energy price pressure, impacted albeit by geopolitical tension.
• Greater electricity laden energy matrix will happen as Planet Earth electricity demand surges twice as much as overall energy demand in the last ten years, a third of this due to China and projected to upswing further due to national and international targets for net zero emissions.
• Secure decarbonisation of power needs investment in grids and storage in quantum multiples of increase in clean electricity generation at an investment ratio restructured at 1:1. However, clean energy transitions coupled with net zero goals are fraught with the rough and narrow including renewables and electric mobility growth, as also LNG demand,  heatwaves and extreme weather, bolstering resilience steps, efficiency policies, AI, high financing costs, project risks and, above all, lack of access to energy.
• Green Hydrogen… guiding light to de-carbonisation. The World Bank is financing its first green hydrogen project in Chile. The development objective of the Green Hydrogen Facility is to Support Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Economic Development in the Republic of Chile. The project consists of two components:

(1) The first component, green hydrogen investment sub-loans and risk-mitigation facility, will provide investment sub-loans on a preferential, but cost-covering basis to partially finance renewable green hydrogen production (including electrolysis systems, compression, and storage) sub-projects in Chile and risk-mitigation reserve accounts, consisting of following sub-components: 

(i) Green hydrogen investment sub-loans; and (ii) risk-mitigation reserve accounts. 

(2) The second component, capacity building and project management, will finance technical assistance, capacity-building activities, and overall project management activities to strengthen the enabling environment for green hydrogen through the development of necessary professional, financial, and technical skills. 

The capability approach unveiled by Amartya Sen lays bare the fact that poverty reduction strategies are not a matter of service delivery alone… “The real need is to find ways to enhance the wherewithal of the poor, of women and men to transform their production capabilities and their lives. This requires action on a number of fronts: access to capacity building, training, finance including microfinance and markets, building of women’s self-help groups and local community organizations with effective community participation.”

Coming to TOURISM, India’s apex policy statements regularly bracket Tourism among the five top national sustainable development thrust priorities. To illustrate the diverse potential of a Sustainable Development Master Plan, the Tourism sector’s resilience was again seen on World Tourism Day 27th September 2024 highlighting Tourism as a pillar of peace and understanding as UN Tourism gathered 500 sector leaders from 51 countries in Tbilisi, Georgia around a common vision and commitment to building a “peace-sensitive sector”.

The tourism sector provides answers to several sustainable development issues. Rapid population increases in the developing world, including India, have pushed many rural communities towards livelihood diversification strategies for supplementing traditional farm-based income attempted, inter alia, by out-migration or also on H-K tourism circuits by providing visitor services. 

The economic contribution of tourism, measured as tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP) was USD 3.3 trillion in 2023, or 3% of global GDP, led by strong domestic and international tourism.

Safeguards with committed finance are necessary. 

Work Plan Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation 

1. This will be overseen by the Working Group with Master Plan partners, themselves trained in the generics of sustainable development, local operations, community participatory governance, basic English (development lingua franca worldwide), hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness. 

1.1 Waste management: Obiter dicta: Waste is not waste till it is wasted. 

1.2 Likewise, the ‘Garbage to Garden’ organic recycling process uses thermophilic bacteria and fully automated composting to convert wet organic waste to compost rich in different nutrients. 

1.3 From AI to Big Data, organizations will appreciate the vital role of digital skills to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving sector. 

1.4 Site management groups will provide monthly review vis-à-vis Workplans, using inter-site competitive benchmarks, detailed output & outcome trends, for evaluation of supply/value chains. 

1.5 For project finance, the recommended modus is a budget line for the Working Group via Government of India-Ministry of Tourism from the Consolidated Fund of India.   

2. Promise aplenty…