Will ecotourism rankings spur competition among States?

To promote ecotourism, State governments will have to prepare a capacity building plan for communities and regulatory staff for every site to ensure progressive improvement in quality of operations and flow of benefits to communities, officials said

New Delhi: Just as the Prime Minister-headed NITI Aayog conducts ranking of States over health and education, the Union Ministry of Tourism will also rank States over their performance in promoting ecotourism. This will not only help foster competitiveness among them, but also encourage them to work proactively towards the development of ecotourism, official sources told Bizz Buzz.

Globally recognized parameters will be used to rank States and Union Territories (UTs), an official said: "The broad areas and action points for ranking exercise will be taken from the international rankings of countries in ecotourism. States may be suitably classified into leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging states."

This will also help prepare state-specific reports, which will have analysis of their respective ecosystems for the promotion of ecotourism, strengths and priority areas for future, and best practices adopted by them, he added.

The ranking will not be the result of a bureaucratic exercise; it will be carried out with the help of professionals. Independent experts from various institutions, both government and private, will be engaged. The Ministry of Tourism will provide necessary training to the officials and other stakeholders and handhold states and UTs for their participation in the exercise.

The proposed ranking, officials said, is part of the efforts to improve India's world ranking in ecotourism.

Ecotourism, indeed all kinds of tourism, requires 'a whole-of-government approach' across the three tiers of government—namely, Central, state and Local government. Besides, officials said, there is the need for strong engagement with the private sector, the local community and civil society organizations.

A comprehensive strategy and long-term shared vision will bring all the stakeholders together to unlock a State's ecotourism potential and use tourism as a vehicle for sustainable social and economic development and jobs.

To promote ecotourism, State governments will strive to prepare a capacity building plan for communities and regulatory staff for every site to ensure progressive improvement in quality of operations and flow of benefits to communities, officials said. Emphasis will be laid on imparting specialized training to field functionaries on green skilling, ecotourism activities, etc.

State governments are expected to identify the capacity needs of local communities to benefit from ecotourism programmes, through jobs and entrepreneurship development, among other things, officials said. This may include training to discharge specialized tasks such as tourist guides, natural science interpreters, patrol partners for protection work, entrepreneurs for small scale homestead-based hospitality industry, small business operators (like souvenir shops, equipment for hire, photography, etc.), they added.