10 measures to make India the hub for Spiritual Tourism Prateek Goel

1. Make it tourist friendly I have travelled to 15 countries and have travelled to more than 60 cities in India with my foreign corporate friends. First thing what foreign tourist and these days even domestic tourist feel about the place is how friendly is that place. Friendliness mainly encompasses People, Facilities & Information.

2. Focus on people attending these tourist It is well said that you must take care of your employees and your employees will take care of your business. Similarly, govt. must take a very good care of the people employed at these spiritual places, be it priests, guides or vendors so that in return they take care of the tourist for the holistic experience. This can be done through PPP model or by complete govt. undertaking.

3. Make the tourist feel like home When anyone is traveling to a spiritual place, their objective is to find peaceful and serene environment. We need to make them feel like home because no one finds peace anywhere else they way they find it in their own home. By this govt. needs to make available all the basic facilities most importantly of sanitation. We have a huge female population at these places and we need to make these places women friendly considering their vast needs among diff age groups.

4. Make the key information available Govt. must ensure that tourists especially who are visiting such places form abroad are well informed about that place. Where to find vehicles to reach to the right place, where to eat, what to eat, place to stay etc. Every such place should have a background information on which state and country people are frequent visitors so that a dedicated multi-lingual person can be appointed.

5. Information on that place One of the most important task should be to make available the complete information of that place, important of that place, spiritual experience of other tourists, etc. so that it is not just another tourist pick nick spot. It is important that tourist must understand the spiritual significance of that place so that when they are back home they can promote their experience and understanding of that place. Make different take-aways for tourists which shall be encrypted with the information of that place.

6. Optimum utilization of resources Govt. Must ensure that the vehicles, canteens, rest-areas, lodges etc. are advertising and spreeading awareness about that place in atleast 3-4 different languages. Even better if this can be handled digitally. This will allow the tourists to get a complete understanding of that spot wherever they go, travel, sit, sleep, eat etc. We should utilize all the resources and make them vehicle of information.

7. Special assistance to senior citizen The most frequent traveler to such places are senior citizens. We must ensure that these places are well built, designed and conceptualized keeping sr. citizens in mind for eg. If it is mountain location we must provide complete travel support etc. Special food with low salt and low sugar in canteens, sanitation needs etc. for sr. citizens.

8. Focus on skill development of employees It is equally important that they people who are appointed at these places are well trained and well informed about these places so that they can in turn educate and enlighten tourists. For this it is important that these people are frequently trained on various aspects and they should be incentivized on their performances. Separate training dept. for each place which will keep an eye on overall development of the employees and their satisfaction level.

9. A strong feedback system Tourist at different places should have access to talk to caretakers of these places through their feed backs, complaints etc. At all the various places, feedback facility should be strongly visible to all the tourists.

10. Strong presence of such places in digital world A separate department should be engaged in the promotional activities of such places. Complete information, high definition images, route guide, contact numbers, ids with 24 hours response time and a dedicated website of each spot will increase the awareness of the place. A pre-registration shall allow tourists to avail all the facilities at economical prices rather than last minute rush.