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Tourism of Arunachal Pradesh in India- Challenges Ahead Sri. Philip Mody Assistant Professor Rajiv Gandhi University Arunachal Pradesh, India BACKGROUND Today Tourism today has assumed huge proportions and manifested into diverse forms. Tourism is a derivate of the word ‘Wanderlust’ that implies practice of wandering and searching for better foods, shelters, securities and habits carried on by early man whose thought were guided with a spirit of adventure and exploration and heart sealed with the spirit of braveness and courage. Infact, Tourism is deeply connected in the story of ‘man’s fights for survivals’. In the contemporary period, tourism has been proved as a big business and considered as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Today the “Wanderlust” has been termed as ‘Tourism.” In addition, tourism is the socio-economic process of gaining need satisfaction outside ones normal place of residence. Tourism open up to economic benefits to a country by way of earning scare foreign exchange and employment generation, tourism also makes a tremendous contribution to the improvement of social and political understanding. Travel in different countries fosters a better rapport between people of various stocks. Personal international contracts have always been an important way of spreading ideas. Tourism is an important means of promoting cultural exchanges and international cooperation- an effective instrument in integrating this world into a single universe. Henceforth, it is rightly called as the fourth dimension of modern economics. With the advent of science and technology in the form of spectacular growth of transport and communication, it has become tourism the fad and fashion of the neo-rich class. With the passage of time, tourism has grown into a full-fledged service industry. Tourism is probably a rare instance of an industry earning foreign exchange without exporting national wealth, yielding tax revenue, providing employment, promoting the growth of the ancillary industries as it help several other industries such as hotel, airlines, handicraft, real Estate, recreation, communication, transportation and financial industry to expand their markets. Further, the only smokeless industry can generate sizable foreign exchange. The complex nature of tourism phenomenon implies that various academic disciples are involved in its study. Some basic disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology, and, geography, management and marketing have been introduced and play a significant role. CHALLENGES AHEAD In India, the state of morning dawn, legends, and mysteries in described as Arunachal Pradesh. She offers wide variety of flora and fauna, different kinds of tribes having rich cultures and traditions, many monuments, and rich heritage. She is truly an exciting state with breath-taking scenery of the Himalayas, the temples and shrines reflecting the religions, the fort and places testifying the glorious history of Arunachal Pradesh. Infact, Arunachal Pradesh has great tourism potential due to its unique cultural and natural attractions. Unfortunately, Despite various potentials to tourism development, the dimension and direction of tourism development in Arunachal Pradesh is still questionable, as it could not come up to the mark what it ought to be. Arunachal Pradesh tourism has not still developed to its full shape because of predomination of either man made or natural problems or both. Some identified major problems pertaining to tourism development in Arunachal Pradesh are categorically discussed:- Non-availability of excellent tourist information service like TOURNET and computerized multilingual tourists information service that could be install at different outlets like helipads, hotels, bus stations, and tourist offices. The service would give instant information on mode of transport, accommodation, places of interest and cost of services to the tourist planning to visit the state. Insufficient provisions for rejuvenation and Beautification of the places of historical and archaeological importance. Beautification of tourist places- all scenic and historically important places should be well maintained. Project should be taken up to make a place more attractive and self-contained in all respect. Area around these places must be clean and letter free. For instance, the prominent historical place like Bhismaknagar has never been rejuvenated. Lack of multilingual properly trained escorts to guide tourists all the way to designated tourist sites, as a very little people know foreign languages such as Spanish, French, German so that they can guide tourist coming from abroad. Insufficient educational institutions for creation of manpower and professionals to manage the affair of tourism. For example, Rajiv Gandhi University is only the pioneering institution offering postgraduate diploma in hospitality management and tourism. Tourism department of Arunachal Pradesh has yet to undertake lot of measures to provide Safety and security to the travelers. Lack of private initiative on tourism development as government should try their best to attract private investment in this sector and some states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have made headway in this direction. Therefore, state should go for planning wide-ranging strategies for development, provision of physical and monetary incentive to catalyze private sector investments and suggest ways and means for protecting the industry, the consumer, and the environment. It is matter of fact that, hunting is part of life of the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh. As a result, Wildlife is facing a threat of poachers and hunter, who hunt wild animals such as the leopard, bear and elephant to get skins and tusks, which fetch a lot of money in the international market. This problem leads to extinction of some rare species of animals. To curb this menace the government has to intensify anti-poaching activities in which heavy fines and imprisonment should be made mandatory. Most of indigenous tribes of this state practice shifting cultivation involve clearing forests for cultivation purposes, and others cutting tress for timber and the rest. It forced wild animals to either migrate or extinct, as it leads to permanent destruction of their natural habitats and destruct some precious plant species. To solve the problem the government should start massive programmes of a forestation and re-forestation and help local people to have sedentary cultivation. Arunachal have their own culture and tradition, which has been passed from generation to generation with minor alterations. But of late the tourists who come from other countries have brought certain and tremendous changes especially at tourists’ destination, which leads local people to shake of their culture and adopt that of the tourists. Non availability of cheap accommodation, restaurant and grocery shop which could cater to the tourist’s needs like fruits, vegetable, cigarettes, sweets, candies, brandy, rum and wine, leather jackets, snow caps and snow etc, nearby tourist sites. Therefore, cheap accommodation and good eating-places should be available nearby tourist destination. Insufficient dispensary and chemist shop for treatment and availability of medicines at tourist places. The publicity and marketing strategies adopted by the department of tourism have not been found effective. Therefore, there is an urgent need to redesign its marketing strategies to increase the tourist traffic in the state. Besides, some promotional measures as family concessions, group’s concessions, etc. can also be introduced by the state Govt. to increase tourists traffic inflow. Non-existence of banking facilities and currency conversion centre nearby tourist places in order to support any financial requirements of the tourist has been one of the major bottlenecks to development of this sector. As Transport and communication is the lifeline to tourism development, unfortunately, many of major tourist places in Arunachal Pradesh are not accessible because of mountainous terrains, deep Georges, and hostile climatic condition. In addition to this, the communication networks and facilities are not enough to meet the growing needs of tourists and, even in certain tourist places, it is still to come up. There is non-availability of recreational facilities near tourist places like, cinema hall, swimming pool, beer bar, and dance club etc to satisfy the supplementary needs of tourist. In spite of favorable geographical conditions, Arunachal Pradesh has underdeveloped and inadequate feasible adventurous sports like, • Skiing- it is one of the most popular and familiar adventure sports. • River rafting – river rafting is another exhilarating adventurous activity which has a tremendous growth potential in Arunachal Pradesh as many rivers of Arunachal Pradesh like, Siang, Sibansiri, Kameng, Lohit rivers etc offer excellent conditions for river rafting. • Trekking – there could not be a better way to explore the mountains than in the most natural way- on foot. • Para gliding and hand gliding- for those who want to experience the thrill and chill of soaring in the sky like an eagle, there could not be better sports than Para-gliding and hand gliding. CONCLUDING REMARKS So, Tourism has become a major and an integral part of economic, social, and physical development. It comprise complete system of nature, the universe, the space and the galaxy which includes the man and his activities, wildlife, mountains and valleys, rivers and waters, forests and trees, social and cultural system, flora and fauna, weather and climate, sun and the rivers. Therefore, In order to maximize the positive effects of tourism, a market approach is essential at all level supported by proper research in order to reap economic benefits of tourism in Arunachal Pradesh. In addition to this, efforts should always be made to consider tourists needs, environment, and infrastructure in formulation and implementation of plans and policies related to tourism development Thus, we should go with dynamism to put Arunachal Pradesh on a high pedestal of tourism map of the India in particular and in the world in general. FURTHER READING: Batra, G.S (1996). Management of Tourism, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi. P 11. Bexd, Westtall and Stasch (1985). Marketing Research- Text and Cases, Richard B. Irwin Inc., Economic Review of Arunachal Pradesh (2006). Holloway and Plant (1988). Marketing for Tourism, Pitman Publishing. Maninder Pal Singh (1999). Promotion of Tourism in Leh and Ladakh, New studies in Commerce and Business, Volume-V, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, pp. 72-78. Naveen Tandon (1999). Promotion of cultural and Pilgrimage Tourism in India, New studies in Commerce and Business, Volume-V, Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, pp. 144-147. Prem Singh Jina (1994). Tourism in Ladakh, India Today. Victor, T.C. Middleton, Marketing in Travel and Tourism, Heinemann, professional Publishing.
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