Responsible Tourism in India: Special Reference to People with Disabilities

Abstract

The annual growth rate of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in India in 2014 was 10.6% which was higher than the median annual growth rate of 4.7% globally, indicating impressive growth (Ministry of Tourism, Annual Report, 2014-15). The Government of India has taken several initiatives to improve this growth rate through schemes like PRASAD, HRIDAY, Swadesh Darshan and Incredible India campaign. However the significant strata of tourists with disabilities has been heavily ignored in these initiatives. Globally, almost 1 billion persons with diverse disabilities are there-physical, mental and sensory. More than 2 billion persons are their family members (WHO, World Report on Disability 2011). The total number of disabled persons in India is 26,810,557 which are 2.21% of the total population of India (Census Report 2011). According to Lonely Planet, if disabled people are provided appropriate facilities wherever they travel, 50% more of them will travel. Another study shows that in United States alone, adults with disabilities annually spend 13.6 billion dollars on travel (UNWTO Recommendations on Accessible Tourism, 2013). Neither the National Tourism Policy 2002 nor the National Policy for Disabled Persons 2006 mentions anything about promoting tourism by persons with disabilities. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 contains various legal loopholes that fail to remove discrimination against both domestic and foreign disabled tourists Therefore, by ignoring these potential new foreign and domestic tourists, India is losing the economic opportunity to earn higher foreign exchange income and significant multiplier effect on the economy through strong forward and backward linkages. Moreover, India is missing the chance to present itself internationally as the face of inclusive and responsible tourism. The effort of this paper is to point out the shortcomings and suggest policymaking measures related to provision of accessibility to persons with disabilities in the legislation, polices, schemes and guidelines of the Government. In present study, secondary data is collected from various authentic published sources such as reports of Ministry of Tourism (GOI), Census of India, UNWTO, National Tourism Policy for persons with disabilities (GOI) etcetera.