Critical Assessment of India's National Tourism Policy 2022 (Draft): Gaps, Governance Challenges and a Roadmap for the Next Policy Cycle
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53983/ijmds.v15n07.005Keywords:
Indian tourism policy, sustainable tourism, destination governance, policy evaluation, National Tourism Policy 2022Abstract
Indian tourism has so far been mainly governed by a policy, drafted nearly two decades ago in the year 2002. The developments around tourism, concerning the subsequent ecological imbalance, after-effects of the Covid pandemic and currently rising travel demand necessitated the release of a new Draft National Tourism Policy in 2022. The new policy caters to many of the important aspects like sustainability, digitalisation, and destination centric planning. Presently, when Indian tourism deals with heightening global competition, climate vulnerability and post-pandemic resurgence of travel demands, the implementation of new National Tourism Policy becomes very crucial. But the policy has not received yet the formal cabinet approval. This paper sets to evaluate the Draft National Tourism Policy 2022, in the context of its objectives, regulatory frameworks, and the future aspirations of positioning Indian tourism globally. The methodology, chosen here, would be qualitative, supported by the data, collected mainly from Ministry of Tourism. The paper seeks to come up with a document-based discussions on present state of tourism sector, and its immense potentiality that is getting curved by a weak centre-state co-ordination, lack of destination specific planning system, and an effortlessness towards creating a sustainable eco-tourism. The existing body of literature based on tourism policy situates this study to deepen the exploration and establish a twelve-point reformation agenda aiming at contributing largely on country’s economic development. Overall, the current paper contributes to the evaluation of Draft National Tourism Policy 2022 with regard to the contemporary tourism industry.
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