India has been voted one of the top five ‘must see’ travel destinations for people living in Asia Pacific, according to a survey commissioned by Visa, world’s largest retail electronic payments network.
The survey interviewed 4,500 respondents from nine Asia Pacific countries and territories to share their top ‘must-visit’ travel destinations in the region. Domestic tourism has proved to be a big draw with more than half of the Indian respondents in the Visa survey expressing interest in exploring the tourist attractions of their own country. According to the Annual Report of the Ministry of Tourism 2007-08, domestic tourism grew at 17.8 percent from 2005 to 2006 (380 million domestic tourists in 2005 to 462 million in 2006.
According to the survey, 63 percent of respondents said Australia was the place they wanted to see most. This was followed by Singapore (42 percent), New Zealand (41 percent), Japan (40 percent) and India (27 percent).
Among Indian respondents, the appeal across certain demographics was similar with 49 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women putting India in their ‘must see’ list. Across the age groups of Indian respondents, more than 55 per cent of those of 35 years and above selected India as a ‘must see’ destination.
India offers a variety of unique experiences for all travellers, but understanding the particular demographics of domestic travellers can help India make the right decisions when it comes to developing cardholder programs and promotions to support tourism.
As the great Assamese singer, Bhupen Hazarika had once sung doi paat aru ata koli (Two leaves and a bud), acres and acres of rolling hills covered with tea bushes, evergreen forest, exotic flowers, gurgling streams, waterfalls, a house on a hill top, the sunrise and, capping it all, the sound of silence.
The cool, fertile hills of the Himalayas grow some of the world’s finest and therefore, the most prized teas.
But some of the tea estates in West Bengal, particularly in Darjeeling district, and Assam are now converting their British-built old bungalows into luxury lodgings, catering to a select, but growing, band of people who wouldn’t mind paying handsomely while sipping what is called Champagne of teas (if it is Darjeeling tea) or Cognac of teas (if it is the Assam variety) amidst sylvan surrounding. Paying handsomely? Yes. Goods things in life do not always come cheap.
But, then, it will be wrong to presume one has to pay handsomely only for tasting tea and sleeping in a four-bedroom wooden (or stone) house which is 100-year-old.
If one visits a tea garden in West Bengal or Assam in March, when the tea harvest begins, one can see the first flush, the youngest and fragrant tips being plucked by workers from slopes as steep as 80 degrees, talk to the local people and learn about the fascinating bush to cup story, i.e., the whole process of how a tea leaf makes it to a tea cup — from bush to factory and then to the tea cup.
One can also witness the tea tasting session, which can be a unique experience.
One can even hike through rain forests in search of animals, opt for rafting or fishing in the hilly rivers that flow in every way they please, climb the hills or just sit in one corner of the verandah of the bungalow, breathe fresh air, watch the majestic Kanchenjunga and enjoy the serenity.
Tea tourism, though a new concept, is fast catching on with more and more tourists making their way to the lush green tea estates.
Particularly among the foreigners, whose fathers, grandfathers and even great grandfathers spent their lives in the tea gardens in India.
Many of those who spent their early days in the tea gardens, but are now settled in their own countries, have fond memories.
A few days stay in tea gardens is like a journey down the memory lane.
Those who did not grow up in the gardens but heard stories from their fathers and grandfathers too, are keen to have first-hand knowledge of what life is like for a planter.
In fact, there is a directory called “Koi Hai” on British tea planters in India.
There is still another group of foreigners who prefer to spend a few days in tea gardens when they come to visit the old British cemeteries spread all over the North-East.
A large number of white men died here fighting unsuccessfully either malaria in the marshy lands of the then undivided Assam or the Japanese attack in the hills of Arakan.
Tea tourism, it is often said, is answer to what Europe calls wine tourism where the visitors stay in the vineyards, observe wine-making process, taste the wine, shop for wine and local crafts and produce.
“We found the whole experience educational and very interesting, and this inspired us to open our own tea estate for tourists who may be interested in knowing about tea,” observes Husna-Tara Prakash of Glenburn Tea Estate of Darjeeling.
“On my first visit to Glenburn, I decided this was the place for such an experience, which I would like call The Tea Experience, as it was simply the most heavenly place.
“In addition to the Tea Experience, we could also offer the guests the other experience, the walking experience, as Glenburn remains perhaps the only destination in the country where you can walk all day and return to luxury at night to savour the mouth-watering dishes prepared with fresh herbs, spices and vegetables we grow ourselves.”
The Tea Board of India, according to its Chairman, Basudeb Bandopadhyaya, welcomes the tea tourism initiative.
“We ourselves from the Tea Board do not promote tea tourism per se because this is not our core area but we always welcome gardens promoting it as revenue-earning drive,” Bandopadhyaya observes.
“We also participate in joint programmes organised by others for promotion of tea tourism”.
For example, as he points out, recently the Tea Board participated in tourism promotion programme organised by the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation in Las Vegas in the US and it was a success.
Tea Board, he said, has asked from the industry a list of gardens which have been identified for purpose of tourism promotion.
Tea tourism, the Tea Board Chairman feels, helps the industry in two ways. First, it helps them develop an alternative revenue stream.
Tea, being an agricultural commodity, is subject to cyclical fluctuations and there are times when the gardens are hard hit by falling international prices, vagaries of weather and labour troubles and various other factors and experience shows that in such difficult times, the promotion of tourism helps gardens overcome their crisis, if not wholly, at least partially.
But more important, according to him, is that tourism helps generate greater awareness among people about tea, particularly good tea and this helps the industry.
C.S. Bedi, Chairman of Tea Research Association, firmly believes in promotion of tea tourism which though does not come directly under the normal operation of TRA.
But then TRA being a 100-year-old tea research institution, the only of its kind in the world, any tea tourism package could include a visit to it.
Being a veteran tea person having spent long years in tea gardens, Bedi strongly feels that the success of tea tourism depends on proper packaging of the tour programme.
For example, the package for a visit to a tea garden in Assam perhaps, should include a visit to Kaziranga National Park, famous world-over for its one-horned rhinos.
But the problem is that Kaziranga remains closed to traffic from May to October, which is also the period when activity in tea gardens is at its peak.
During the tea season, i.e., from April to December, the managers of the gardens remain so preoccupied with the entire process of tea production, from the plucking of leaves to preparation of made teas and despatches that they will not have much time left to attend to the tourists.
There are other issues such as proper local infrastructure, secure environment which deserve careful consideration at the time of preparation of the package, observes Bedi.
The tea tourism, it is felt, can hope to succeed if the garden-owners also take adequate care to train the local estate workers in hospitality skills, maintenance of conservation practices by creating bio-diversity areas within the estates, preservation of plastic-free environment and, most important, never forgetting to give the impression that they all belong to one big happy family within the plantation.
Tea tourism in India can indeed be a very fine experience.
If the gardens are located in the foothills of the Himalayas, one can see the wonderful mountain range from the rooms or can relax sitting in a garden chair surrounded by tea bushes, watch the greeneries, look at the beautiful slopes of the mountains which look like huge green carpets and enjoy the serenity of the wonderful atmosphere.
Or one can take a walk through the gardens, see local men and women working, plucking leaves and buds in huge cane baskets.
If on the other hand one is in a tea garden in South India, one can indulge in watching elephant graze, verdant slopes punctuated by waterfalls, delight at the joy of boating across a lake, trek a mountain path, play a game of table tennis, support the cause of the endangered Lion-tailed Macaque, walk across acres and acres of endless beauty or read a book of one’s choice sitting on a water edge.
Langkawi is becoming a popular destination for tourists from India with the increase in their arrival to the island, said Langkawi Tourism Action Council general manager Shaharuddin Itam.
“Most of them came with their families for shopping and to enjoy the island’s beauty, and they were also those who came for meetings,” he told reporters after presenting certificates to 235 participants of a language course recently.
The participants attended a course in either Mandarin, Arabic, French, Japanese, German or Thai.
With the influx of tourists from India, Shaharuddin said a Hindi course would be organised for the front liners in the travel industry, like taxi drivers, restaurant operators and workers at shopping centres.
He said more travel packages would also be introduced for tourists from India.
He said a millionaire from India, enticed by Langkawi, had made the island his wedding venue.
River rafting is fast emerging as a popular sport in the Kashmir Valley. In Kashmir’s Pahalgam region, in particular, the white water river rafting has gained immense popularity.
Located in the south-east of Kashmir, Pahalgam is surrounded by lofty mountain ranges and is washed by gushing streams and rivulets which provide abundant opportunities for adventure sports like river water rafting
The aquatic adventure sport is attracting a lot of domestic as well as international tourists. And, this is a good news for the local residents related to tourism sector. In fact, the white water river rafting destinations in India are comparable to the best in the world and among these the ones in Kashmir render utmost thrills to the participants.
Adventure-loving tourists visiting Kashmir include Pahalgam as their prime destination to enjoy thrills of white water rafting here.
Kashmir is known the world over for its enchanting picturesque lakes, streams and rivers.
“I have done river rafting in almost all the places across India. The only hill station, which was left, was Pahalgam. After attempting river-rafting here I have realized my cherished wish here as well. I’m enjoying my experience here. Earlier I had done river rafting in Rishikesh,” said Naresh Kumar, a Rajasthani tourist.
Earlier, Pahalgam used to have only 10-13 boats sailing along the ice-cold white waters of Lidder Nallah (stream). But now their number has touched 40-45 to cater to the needs of the ever growing enthusiasts of this adventure sport here.
The growing charm among tourists has proved a boon for local residents here. “The tourists’ response is very good. Out of the total tourists coming to Pahalgam, 90 percent are doing rafting. We know about it because we are into this business. Even the locals are into rafting and it’s getting very popular.” said Mohammed Ibrahim Raina, owner of a rafting boat.
The Jammu and Kashmir Government after watching the potential of this sport is keen to capitalise on river rafting as an employment generation medium in the region. “It is our effort to promote white river rafting because we have streams and beautiful rivers here which are perfect for it.
There is a lot of potential and opportunity for white water rafting so we want to fully exploit it and create this facility for the tourists. The effort is to promote white river rafting to benefit local residents because the government is not interested in running this rafting programme and we are only overseeing this. We are laying down the terms and conditions for conducting this programme and only want the locals to benefit from this,” said Sarmad Hafeez, Joint Director for Tourism in Kashmir.
Kashmir is known the world over for its enchanting picturesque lakes, streams and rivers. River water rafting is a relatively recent introduction in the Kashmir valley. Tourism is the mainstay of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy. It has seen a tremendous upswing since 2004.
National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology, under Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India had conducted Centralized Counselling at New Delhi in three rounds starting from June 24 to July 24 for allotment of seats for admission to First Year of 3-year B.Sc. in Hospitality and Hotel Administration for 2008-09 academic session in its 35 affiliated Institutes of Hotel Management i.e. 21 Central Govt. sponsored Institutes, seven State Govt. sponsored Institutes and 7 Private run Institutes offering in all 5685 seats.
After close of 3rd round of Centralized Counselling, the seats now displayed on the Council’s web site www.nchmct.org are to be filled. There are 375 seats in General category available in two Govt. Institutes and four Private Institutes located at Calicut (Kerala), Hyderabad, Chennai & Bhubaneswar. Also some seats under OBC and PH categories are available in Govt. Institutes only.
Candidates from rank 110001 to 13371 under General category and candidates from 1189 to 1843 under SC category (after conversion from SC rank to General rank of 13371 on the basis of marks obtained in the Written Test of JEE-2008) may download their Rank Card and Registration Form and apply to any one of the above mentioned Institutes by 1st August , 2008 upto 1700 hours on their e-mail address or through Fax.
The addresses of Institutes & FAX & e-mail IDs are given in the website. The candidate shall in due course be intimated for further direction for admission by respective institutes directly.
Candidates who have missed their counseling earlier for any valid reason may also apply against vacant seats now available.
