Standardization of Services in Tourism Sector

The travel and tourism sector in India is highly disorganized. Perhaps, we can blame the government’s policies for it. Despite of spending mammoth amounts of money on Innovative campaigns like India Shining and Incredible India by the government, the country has failed to garner much interest among the tourists. The biggest reason which can be contributed to the aforesaid fact is the Non-Standardization of Tourism Services in our country. The Tourism Industry has the potential of generating maximum revenue to the Gross Domestic Product of a country if cultivated properly.

Standardization of Services in Tourism Sector is a prerequisite condition for any country to further capitalize the potential in the area. The need is to remove the ambiguity in the Travel and Tourism Services so that the Tourists do not feel confused and cheated on being supplied by different information by different agencies which might ultimately help to curb down the generation of back money.

The Foreigners, have a lot of grievances about the fact that the Government does nothing to standardize the Tourism Sector. Despite of various steps taken by the government to cater these issues like granting letters of approval of certification by the Deptt. of Tourism, providing licenses to various Tourism operators, various unorganized agencies and Touts who under the garb of Recognised Tour operators operate in the market and dupe people without having any skill, expertise or formal knowledge about the Industry.

The government should stringent its norms about the Standardization of Services in tourism sector so that only the people/organization who possess the Formal knowledge and expertise gained through proper authentic certification by the board of tourism and is subject to audit and review every year so that only the licenses of those agents are renewed who fulfill the criteria every year.

Also the government can devise certain plans as to the disclosure of mandatory information so as to enable uniformity in packages supplied by the agents.

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Ethical issues in the Tourism Industry

The tourism industry can become one of the main sources of income for several countries, especially developing nations, which have a huge potential for tourism. Ironically, it is also one of the prominent service sector which sees a gross violation of corporate ethical conduct. Simply because a foreigner to a country is not aware of the system of operations, as well prevalent cultures, the local population tends to exploit that ignorance to their benefit. They without a conscience act upon ways to manipulate the trust which the ignorant tourist places upon them.One of the several issues in the ethical issues of the tourism industry is the non-disclosure of information to the tourist. The information provided to the tourist before they avail the service is many a time misguided and fine print, well, you could call it a bit too fine! A lot of relevant information is left out, leaving the consumer tourist confused. The exchange and return policy on products, the fares of commercial vehicles, the added expenses of a trip, you name it, the tourist has been exploited.

Tourists on a regular basis are told about domestic travel and package deals, which seem pretty attractive and affordable prima facie, but when the actual trip commences they find several added expenses being incurred, leaving the tourist feeling cheated. The authorities do not provide sufficient information as to the rates of travel, stay, and places which are the places the tourist should be aware of, which might be a threat to them.

There are several ways the tourism industry may take better care of this problem. The main initiative is required from the tourism ministry of the country, since it is the regulatory authority. More stringent norms for tourist satisfaction, providing easy access of relevant information to the tourists, about rates, tariffs, certified places of accommodation and modes of travel, are required to prevent the tourist being duped. A tourist’s satisfaction is of the utmost importance, because a displeased tourist leaves a bad impression about a whole nation.

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Differential Charging in Tourism

Differential charging has been an   unethical issue in today’s tourism industry.  Its has been  a very common  sighting  foreigners  being  charged excessively  not only by the  private service providers  but also  by the government. For example: I can locate the rate board  at the red fort  showing  huge differences in the rate for sight seeing for Indian as  they charge only Rs. 15 per person but for the foreigners  they charge around Rs. 50 per person.

In fact, such issue is not only prevalent in Delhi only but else where also. Such issue may hamper the industry to large extent as deferential treatments of the tourists erode the interest of the tourists and they may frame unimpressive opinion regarding our country. As a result people may avoid touring such place

Tourism is a huge industry. The profit generated from it may be an important source of income generation for our any nation. Even small villages can be tourism spot.  Once I had time to visit pure where I saw a village totally earning its income through art and craft material they prepare and sale to tourists. But the rate they charged was not appropriate. And therefore I avoided buying thing there.

The private service provider like the taxi drivers, the shopkeepers, hawkers and pundits at religious places are not always generous while treating the tourists. They charge unethically. Once I had been to Allahabad for a bath in the holy Sangam. The boat rowers took Rs. 1000 for only 2 persons, but later on I came to know that the fare was only Rs. 10 per person.

However it is very difficult to curb the disorganized unethical issues prevalent all over the industry. Charging the tourists differentially infact is loss making policy. Legal provision is needed in order to reduce such discrepancies in this sector.

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Spectacular Commonwealth Games failed to attract many foreigners

According to recent study published by Times of India on November 07, 2010 titled “Despite CWG hype, only 5% rise in foreign tourist inflow”, there is no substantial increase in tourists inflow for and after the Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi. There has been a paltry 5% increase in October 2010 as compared to October 2009. The number of foreign tourists arriving at Delhi airport has increased by a measly 5.1% as per data published by Union tourism ministry.The statistics for the rest of the country were hardly any better. Altogether, 487,000 foreign tourists visited India as against 446,000 during October 2009 registering an increase of 9%.

In the last six months, 4.3 million foreign tourists visited India during January-October 2010 with a growth rate of 9.9% as compared to last year. Increase in number of travelers indicates that travelers hit by economic recession were gradually bouncing back. Growth had dipped to 6.7% during January-October 2009 over the corresponding period of 2008.

Foreign exchange earnings from tourism during January- October 2010 were Rs 513.34 billion with a growth rate of 21.1%, as compared to Rs 423.9 billion with a growth of 4.1% during January-October 2009 over the corresponding period of 2008.

There is an increase in business and leisure travel. However, India failed to capitalise on the opportunity that the Games as an international sporting event offered, owing to negative publicity for the lack of enthusiasm abroad and absence of a focused, well-orchestrated campaign and planning. (Source: Times of India, November 07, 2010)

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