Poised to Soar

As a continuation to last year, Karnataka tourism had arranged a get together branded as "Connect 2008" with a tag line - “Poised to Soar". Day long deliberation which had hardly any resonance to the ground realities left a lot of bitter taste and fear for the future of tourism in destinations.

Well attended by the industry, the morning session included presentations by Tourism department officials. All the trumpeting about achievements through presentation was literally shot down with One Tight Slap by the CEO of Bangalore International Airport Ltd, Mr Albert Brunner who show cased the sad scenario Indian tourism is in! Why is it that we still need a foreginer to call the spade a spade? All he did was to put some points in his slides about traveller’s expectations and what was available for them in destinations! Simple presentation but very powerful.

Except for some insightful remarks on online travel bookings, from Amit Saberwal who represented Make My Trip.com and invocation by a local singer, there was nothing noticeable in the morning session.

It was quite unbelievable even in the later sessions that NOT A SINGLE presentation other than Minja Yang from UNESCO ,who mentioned 'People', or 'Communities' while explaining their work. The discussions were all around infrastructure, buildings, resorts and hotels. Oh, of course there was someone giving ideas of various segments in the business where you should invest, "if you want to make BIG money"...

How can I forget the guy from KUONI destination Management who redefined 'Rural tourism' as 'Pollution free tourism'. He also showed us what could probably be the future in terms of having the courage to use the term 'Responsible Tourism' even though it was so obvious that they had no sense of what it was all about. Eco tourism, rural tourism, package tourism and now Responsible Tourism. He said, 'We also support Responsible Tourism that brings in the benefits of the business to local people'. On asked to quantify KUONI 's contribution to RT in India, pat came the reply. “I can't quantify that but we are members of TOTF". How easy it's to be Responsible these days!

Hearing the possibilities for Karnataka tourism because of "Destination Fatigue" in other places like Kerala and Goa, I was so tempted to stand up and ask them if they had any idea on what was happening in Gokarna where the 'fatigued backpacker's exodus' from Goan beaches is now a reality. The sleepy coastal town known for pilgrimage and beautiful beaches is being butchered by irresponsible tourists and an administration that has no foresight. If not intervened ASAP, Gokarna will be synonymous to garbage and drugs. According to our local sources, even the strong Brahmin communities that helped maintained the cultural richness of the areas and even those who kept away from the drug pushing back-packers are now falling into the trap of drug business.

A destination where average daily spending hardly crosses INR 500 ( including food and drinks, accommodation, transportation, Internet and purchase of some souvenirs) per foreign tourist, some of the illegal shacks are apparently known to be making a profit of INR 2000000 in just six months of the peak season. According to our contacts that have seen it all, that money is coming from selling drugs.

What irritated me the most was the callous statement that Karnataka as a destination will benefit from the destination fatigue of other states! No one was interested in giving an answer when asked how they are planning to handle that traffic. Very diplomatically they requested me to ask questions that mattered to the 'present session' on the challenges of infrastructure. Interesting!

Poised to 'Sore'?

Bangalore © GP 2008