NEW DELHI: If you are travelling to other places, you will be monitored. The ministry of tourism has set the ball rolling for a nationwide survey of domestic and foreign tourists to understand travelling behaviour, purpose, expenditure pattern and for profiling.
The data will be collected by the state governments and Union Territories. The ministry will facilitate the survey and provide financial assistance to carry it out. The findings will be used to study capacity building of the states and UTs by identifying major tourist destinations in a district, entry and exit points, and accommodation units. The exercise is aimed at providing a strategised boost to tourism.
Government officials in the know of things said the ministry has invited bids for empanelment of agencies through which the survey will be conducted. Separate tenders has been issued for each region — north, south, east, west and north-east.
“The state tourism departments will rope in an empanelled agency or agencies to undertake the survey in each district. The ministry will provide financial assistance. The state tourism departments will share the statistics on foreign tourist visits (FTV) and domestic tourist visits (DTV) with the ministry. On the basis of the collected data, tourism policies will be drafted,” said an official.
The data will be collected every month. For speeding up data entry, compilation, analysis and reporting on a monthly basis, a mobile application will be provided. The official said that the ministry has also engaged the National Productivity Council under the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for preparation and deployment of an integrated automated dashboard for submission of data collected by the states.
The council will also impart training to state-level supervisors of the agency selected, on the methodology of conducting the surveys. Subsequently, they will train field surveyors and ensure good quality surveys. The survey to assess purpose and preference will be collected from major destinations, entry/exit points and accommodation units.