Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Indep. Ch.) for Culture & Tourism and MoS for Ministry of Civil Aviation, was all smiles when The Dollar Business team walked into his office. For one from the stronger, larger political camp, the live telecast of turmoil in the AAP camp (on an LED screen in his office) should have been motivating enough to begin a verbal political parade during the interview. We were happily surprised. All about economics and zero political swagger, he only spoke on trade-related concerns in his ministries. He means serious business, we learnt!

Interview by Steven Philip Warner & Vanita Peter D’souza | The Dollar Business

TDB: You are in currently in independent charge of the Ministry of Tourism in India. India expects much from the tourism industry, especially medical. Medical tourism in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30% over the next couple of years. Some expect it to cross the $2 billion in value by end-2015. But many doubt this high growth story as the sector has retained its weaknesses. Yes, we provide world class healthcare facility at lower prices, but thousands of medical tourists complain about various inefficiencies, lack of special treatment from airport authorities, lack of translators, etc. How is the Ministry dealing with these issues?

Dr. Mahesh Sharma (DMS): There is a lot of scope in medical tourism as we in India are able to provide international quality healthcare services at one-sixth or one-eighth of the prices at which such services are available in the West. Price is a very important factor in the healthcare industry. Countries with insurance-based healthcare sector have also over the years tried to cut down on prices. As far as healthcare providers go, such companies have in recent years either reduced their prices or are operating on fixed slabs for surgeries or treatment. Going by such a market mood, I think India will be the future destination for medical tourism. We are trying to hook up medical tourism with routine tourism, which also has a lot of scope. I understand that certain issues continue to hurt the tourism sector. We are cognizant of the limitations that the sector is faced with at present. As such, we have proposed to address three key issues of this sector immediately. These include cleanliness, security and hospitality. We have also identified twenty-five monuments and tourist destinations in India and have linked it up with the Prime Minister-led Swachh Bharat Mission. We have issued guidelines and advisories for international tourists and soon as they arrive at immigration counters at various Indian airports, they will be handed over an advisory that lists out some dos and don’ts. You mentioned safety concerns that bother international and domestic tourists and therefore the tourism sector in India, and here I state a small step being taken to cater to this issue. The government has launched a round-the-clock helpline, 1363, which is currently available in two languages [English and Hindi], and will soon be available in 10 more languages for a wider global reach. This ‘Incredible India Helpline’ has been initiated solely to ensure the safety of tourists at large and to encourage tourism in India by giving respect to basic rights of tourists – their safety and freedom. So the Ministry is dealing with all the issues one by one, and quickly too!

TDB: Union Budget 2015-16 had some good news for the tourism sector. There was especially this thought given to increasing the count of international tourist arrivals into India, thus adding to India’s forex earnings. Do you agree?

DMS: Tourism contributes almost 6.8% to India’s GDP, whereas our share of International Tourist Arrivals (ITAs) is just 0.6%. Our target is to get 1% of ITAs within a period of two years. And we want to increase our ITAs in all kinds of tourism sub-sectors – be it medical tourism, adventure tourism, eco tourism, or village tourism. So the Budget is a good start to achieve our mid-term to long-term targets. One area that shouldn’t be overlooked is the government’s decision to increase count of nations for whom the Electronic Travel Authorisation(ETA)-enabled Visa on Arrival (VoA) facility is to made available. In November 2014, we started VoA for 43 countries and since then 68,000 tourists have arrived from these nations which is a 1,200% growth as compared to a year back. These are invariably excellent results. But I still believe that there remains much to be done and achieved in this respect. Our immediate next step is to allow VoA arrivals from five more countries that include China, Italy, Spain, France and United Kingdom. For us, sky is the limit. You are well aware that while presenting the Budget, Shri Arun Jaitley spoke of the facility to be extended, in stages, to citizens of 150 countries. The Tourism Ministry is clear – to make India a real tourist hub, we want to make our stakeholders our partners; and this is true for even the Civil Aviation Ministry. After assuming office as a Minister, I have held a series of interactions with the stakeholders in the two sectors and we are in regular touch with them to ensure something concrete is born out of various dialogues. That foreign tourist arrivals at 74.62 lakh during 2014 marks a y-o-y increase of 7.1% is good news. But we want to make the good, better! 

TDB: In January this year, the Tourism Ministry announced that it had set an agenda of twenty-five actionable points for the year 2015 to promote tourism in India. Which critical matters have been considered in the agenda?

DMS: Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi believes in the potential of tourism sector. It’s a domestic and foreign exchange revenue-earning sector that provides employment and promotes the rich heritage and culture of India around the world. We propose clean, safe and hospitable tourism. We have already started taking measures to ensure that matters that needed urgent attention and correction are taken care of. So we have set up an agenda of 25 action points for the year 2015 to promote tourism. E-ticketing for visiting monuments, setting up of advisories, initiating helplines for tourists, increasing connectivity to Northeast and Himalayan states, declaring five major tourist circuits such as Krishna circuit (Mathura-Vridhavan), Buddhist circuits, etc., are only some of the action points. Not to forget, we also have a coastline of 7,500-plus kilometres, which is yet to be explored.

TDB: The last time a national policy on tourism was drafted was about 12 years back when BJP last governed India. When can we expect a new version of the National Tourism Policy?

DMS: The new policy should be out in four weeks time. It should create a win-win situation for both government agencies and stakeholders. That’s as much as I can tell you at this point in time.

TDB: On one hand we have a target of 10 million foreign tourist visits in India in the next couple years, and on the other, the fact that over 90% of these arrive by air. What are the current opportunities, as far as the interaction between aviation and tourism in India is concerned?

DMS: The potential of civil aviation industry in a developing country like India is very high. The close coordination between tourism and airline sectors is very important to make India a hot destination for tourism and for healthy growth of the civil aviation industry in the country. Like I said earlier, our belief is that stakeholders across both these sectors can join hands to ensure that the air transport industry best contributes to the development of tourism. Given that such an overwhelming proportion of foreign tourists come via air, the civil aviation sector has to grow paralelly. And that depends on the nature of commercial decisions taken and the quality and capacities of India’s airports, and aviation-related infrastructure. At present, we feature amongst the top ten markets in the business of civil aviation in terms of passenger traffic. But by 2020, by tapping the potential of a largely underserved market and adequate growth in infrastructure, we are hopeful that India will move to the top three. We are also opening a national aviation university. With employment opportunities being created for 3.5 lakh Indians, and with skilled labour being available to the sector, I think the combination of civil aviation and tourism sectors will only mean boon for stakeholders.

TDB: You mentioned infrastructure development as a necessary condition for the growth of civil aviation in India. But this, alongside other concerns are deterrents to India earning greater forex revenues from aviation, and tourism sectors. Don’t you think so?

DMS: Indeed we hear about issues like inadequate airport infrastructure, low levels of security, lower count of immigration counters, etc., as obstacles to growth of the tourism sector, thereby hurting forex inflows into India. We have already started working on all such issues. About eighty Indian airports, barring airports in and around metros, have received international status. And in the near months, we plan to privatise four more airports by upgrading them.

TDB: At present, airlines in India complain that ATF prices for domestic flights in India is the highest globally and this component accounts for almost 40-45% of their operating cost. This makes their very survival difficult, ensuring that overseas traffic is automatically handed over to bigger, foreign carriers in the mid to long term. Your comment…

DMS: Soon, ATF prices will go down and the aviation industry will benefit greatly. We are trying to do something to bring about uniformity in tax structure across various states. But we have to be patient on that front.

TDB: Currently, two-thirds of outbound and inbound international air traffic in India is accounted for by foreign carriers. Will we witness the power equation shifting towards Indian carriers any year soon?

DMS: It is true that foreign airline entities enjoy the majority of foreign (both outbound and inbound) air traffic. State-run Air India, which is the largest airline in terms of fleet size in India at present, currently has a fleet of about 112 aircraft. On the other hand, if you compare this with the fleet size of largest airlines in US like American Airlines or Delta Airlines, their individual fleet sizes are anywhere between six to eight times greater! Of course, it’s a fact to note that airlines in our civil aviation sector are laden with financial issues. So until and unless there is a big increase in the fleet sizes of Indian carriers, it will not be possible to match passenger carrying capacities of big international carriers. We accept our limitation on this front.

TDB: So you mean, forecasts that India’s civil aviation sector will witness addition of more than 1000 aircraft in the two next decades – despite problems of unhealthy price wars leading to financial bleed and too few airports capable of handling international traffic – appears to be a possibility?

DMS: Frankly, for that we will have to look into our resources.

TDB: Tourism, culture and aviation sectors in India – what’s the road ahead?

DMS: All three are linked to each other. Indian tourism has lot of potential and much of it is yet to be explored. We are hopeful that we can provide the much needed boost to tourism and aviation sectors with smart policies and honest hard work.