Nishant Bhaiji
NEW DELHI: India’s G20 presidency is a golden opportunity to showcase the country’s culture, history and tourism potential on the global stage. The Government has come up with elaborate plans to provide visiting delegates a window to ‘Incredible India’.
This was also emphasised by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant in one of his interactions earlier. “G20 is a huge opportunity to send back every visitor to India with a unique Indian experience which in culturally enriching, mentally rejuvenating and spiritually invigorating. Every G20 participant must go back home as a brand ambassador of Incredible India,” he had said.
During its presidency India will host over 215 meetings in more than 60 different locations. Unlike the past, the events this time are not limited to New Delhi or big metro cities. These are being held in every corner of the country. While gearing up cities for hosting events of such mammoth scale is an uphill task, the rewards would be plenty. These locations will not only serve as India’s brand ambassador, they will also provide delegates from more than 35 countries a rare glimpse of the nation’s richness and diversity.
India’s soft power was manifested at is best during the recent G20 meetings in Udaipur, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The city and state administrations there had put up a splendid display of local culture, cuisine, handicraft, art and dance.
Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Tweeter were inundated with awestruck faces of delegates enjoying the city tours. From organising excursions to monuments, heritage sites, state trade fairs, to traditional dance and music events, and spiritual retreats, both local and Central governments are leaving no stone unturned.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to all parties to put in a united effort to capitalise on the rare opportunity presented by the India’s G20 presidency. “India’s G20 Presidency belongs to the entire nation and it is a unique opportunity to showcase India’s strengths to the entire world. There is a global curiosity and attraction towards India,” PM Modi had said at an all-party meeting.
Apart from soft power, the tourism and hospitality industry also plays a crucial role in fueling economic activities and local livelihoods. To rejuvenate the sector, the Government has carefully selected G20 event destinations and scheduled meetings keeping in mind the local festivals. This way delegates and attendees could get a taste of the local culture and cuisine.
Union Tourism Secretary, Arvind Singh is confident that India’s G20 presidency will boast the sector’s growth trajectory. “In terms of international inbound, we expect to recover faster than other Asian countries. We are likely to see as many international arrivals in 2023 as we had in pre-Covid-19, at 1.7 crore. Thanks to the G20 presidency, we should soon go past the 2019 figure which was the highest-ever annual arrival,” he said in an interview to an English daily.
His enthusiasm is shared by World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC), a London-based non-governmental forum for travel and tourism industry. In its Economic Impact Report, WTTC estimates that tourism sector’s share in the India’s economy could touch INR 15.9 trillion ($215 billion) in 2022. The numbers would surpass the 2019 levels by 1 per cent.
There is another key reason why the Central Government is putting all its weight to project India as global tourism destination during its G20 presidency.
An increased international tourist footfall would result in substantial inflows of foreign currency. The move aims to help offset the depleting foreign-exchange reserves in the aftermath of persistently high global energy and food prices. The international tourists are the third largest contributor to India’s forex reserves. As per the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, on an average from 2011 to 2019, forex inflow from tourism sector was around 9.4 per cent per annum.
The three Covid-19 waves, however, adversely affected the arrival of the international tourists. According to the Bureau of Immigration, the number of foreign tourists went down to 2.74 million in 2020 and hit the bottom in June 2021, with only 0.42 million visitors. The figure stands in stark contrast to pre- pandemic levels of 10.93 million in 2019. A decline in the number of foreign tourists had a direct and negative impact on the foreignexchange reserves.
G20 presidency will not only put India firmly on the world map, it will also rescue the nation from its foreignexchange reserves woes. Incidentally, four out of the top five countries from where India sees the highest number of international footfall are the US, the UK, France and Germany, and they are all members of the G20.
