Insight

Assessing Maharashtra

Numerous projects have been outlined by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. But with a handicapped tourism board struggling under accumulated losses, it remains to be seen if these initiatives ever see the light of day. Express TravelWorld analyses

Maharashtra, the premier industrial state in the country with an average growth rate of nine per cent in the last three years, has unfortunately not been able to keep pace with growth in the tourism sector. Although its economy has resumed its high growth trajectory with a revenue surplus of over Rs 265 crore as per the budget estimates for the year 2005-06, the tourism promotion budget for the months of September to December, 2005 is a petty one crore.

The state with its vast coastline, beaches, forts, numerous places of pilgrimage, heritage sites and forests with its atural beauty has vast potential to become a major tourist center for South Asia. But it is only this year that the state government has decided to give special impetus to tourism. Bhushan Gagrani, MD of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) says, "We have been talking and hearing a lot about the incentive policy, but this year we are in the process of formulating a new tourism policy. We have a good incentive policy in place and there is a lot of planning required to make it perfect and we have to involve everybody related directly or indirectly to the trade."

Budget allotment

The budget estimates of 2005-06 presented to the legislature in March 2005 states that 'a provision of Rs 79.8 crore has been proposed for tourism and a loan of Rs 300 crore has been sanctioned by the Japan Bank of International Corporation for the second phase of Ajanta-Ellora project, of which Rs 60 crore is from the state government'.

But Gagrani is candid when he says, "We are not financially blessed. As a corporation, we are struggling under ccumulated losses and MTDC on its own cannot do much. Our main source of income is from the resorts but we are not able to hike their prices. The government must support the corporation, but we have got only Rs one crore as promotional fund for this year starting September. We have requested them to increase it to Rs 5 crore."

Projects initiated

However, although MTDC is suffering from insufficient budgetary allowance from the government, it has initiated projects on its own with available resources. The international airport in Mumbai gives it the right platform to capture visitors and convert them to tourists. This is the current strategy adopted by the department. "Mumbai gets about 40 per cent of the total international tourists arriving in India. Our strategy is to get at least half of them to visit the interiors of the state," remarks Gagrani.

The prime focus of the state is to build on its infrastructure. The state budget has proposed on developing Mumbai with projects worth Rs 1,113 crore under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). About a 100 new MUTP projects have been planned to be made available by 2007.

The department has initiated a development plan for the heritage site of Elephanta caves as well as upgradation of Lonar lake. To identify areas of special tourist importance, the state has recommended Gorai to be recognised as a Special Economic Zone. An eco-tourism project at Gorewada near Nagpur is also on the anvil. Focus is particularly on development of pilgrim places with an outlay of Rs 31.23 crore. "We are also planning to revive the Deccan Odyssey and take its occupancy figure to 50 per cent from its current 25 per cent during season. It is a good product but it has taken us three years to create awareness. We are now looking at overseas markets like UK, Germany, Italy and the USA to market it," says Gagrani.

The focus is also on employment generation. He elucidates, "According to international statistics, if there is an investment of Rs 10 lakhs in tourism, it creates about 40 jobs, which is not possible in any other sector anymore. Apart from that, employment in tourism does not require one to be highly qualified. So our focus is largely on opening new avenues for employment."

Other plans include formation of an eco-tourism authority, introducing houseboats in the Konkan belt and boosting development of 'bed and breakfast' with incentives. Also notable are the efforts by the archeological department that has proposed privatisation of monuments. Work is also on to increase the forest area of the state from 20.91 per cent to at least 33 per cent by 2012 and an outlay of Rs 7.3 crore has been proposed for the year 2005-06. Moreover, a fund of Rs 3.3 crore has been planned to be made available to the forest department.

Work is in progress under the regional tourism schemes of Konkan, Khandesh and Vidarbha packages for which tourism facilities are being created. An amount of Rs 8 crore has been sanctioned for the year 2004-05 for development of Diveagar and Harihareshwar in Raigarh district.

Marketing approach

Bhushan Gagrani MD, MTDC

MTDC is also looking at working out a more robust marketing approach. Making Maharashtra a leading tourism destination for domestic travellers as well as those from South and Southeast Asia is its objective. It is now marketing the state under the branding slogan 'Maharashtra Unlimited'.

"We have realised that we are not aggressive marketers. The state is perceived to be an industrial hub where tourism share in the state GDP is not more than one to two per cent. In comparison, Kerala has about 30 per cent, Goa touches about 40 per cent and Rajasthan tourism's share is about 15 per cent. So we are working on bringing a drastic change in the figures and have prepared a detailed marketing and media plan for the year 2005-06. But the implementation will depend on the availability of funds from the state government. Nevertheless, we will still continue with some marketing and publicity activities under the Ajanta Ellora Development Scheme," states Gagrani.

Another strategy followed by many tourism boards is participation in international events and the state is trying to make its presence felt there. But Gagrani points out a hurdle. "We are working on being visible in all international conventions and road shows as well as focus on the electronic media and for this we are hopeful of receiving some financial support from the government," he says.