BY ROBIN GHOSH ,
ECONOMIST AND BUSINESS MENTOR.
KOLKATA, 10 JULY 2024:
Yes, you can. But there is a catch. Conventional tourism policies , projects, and outlook are not going to work.
You have to discover a new set of projects, products and services which meet the requirements of young tourists and travellers.
It is well known that tourism is a great job generator and investment in tourism projects fosters regional and local economy.
Yet, investment from business houses in tourism projects continues to be generally shy and lukewarm.
Why? Most of the tourism projects, be it hotel, resort, restaurants, or ropeways, take a long time to pay back and generate required ROI.
Because of this long-term recovery of money, flow of private capital is slow and inadequate.
And, therefore, unless the government decides to invest in tourism infrastructure, connectivity ,amusement, and so on, private investment will remain under slow burn.
So, if you are looking for tourism led employment generation, you have to strategise, choose, select a bunch of projects – which generates good yield and at the same time – has short gestation lag, in short – a low hanging fruit.
What are those low hanging fruits? What are those projects which ensures quick reasonable return, creates multiple jobs, and products and services which has sustainable demand at the tourist destinations.
A quick research shows – only a creative and innovative business strategy shall deliver the goods.
Hence, the development model needs to be designed by creative architects and town planners , economists, and financial planners.
A Whatsapp Conference call with a few young architects , project consultants, business advisors identified a few project ideas having low investment, reasonable return and quick completion time.
The basket of projects identified are interesting and out of box ideas. Coming to tourism projects which could accelerate tourism
development in Bengal, the series of projects are:
1 Development of Homestay Network near Temple Towns.
2 Setting up of Retreats for Bicycle and Motorbike adventurers.
3 Creating Wedding Destinations in North and South Bengal.
4 Ropeway Projects to offer tourists efficient access and an opportunity to witness the beauty of nature.
5 Development of Senior Citizen’s Retreat every 100 km.
No doubt, the ideas that emerged are novel, practical and doable.
But to turn these ideas into real life projects, support systems, mainly financial incentives from the government is important.
The package of Incentives could be:
1 Capital Subsidy
2 Interest Subsidy
3 Reimbursement of GST
4 Creating a centralised marketing portal for booking.
5 A Public and Private Partnership Scheme.
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