The Uttar Pradesh government is now planning to promote “pro-poor tourism” — an initiative that will seek to utilise tourism as strategic tool to alleviate poverty among the marginalised communities. The state tourism department is mulling a pro-poor tourism development programme by focusing on Buddhist Circuit and Agra-Brij Corridor and keeping Agra and Varanasi as the focal points. By using “pro-poor” tourism as an anti-poverty tool, the department plans to seek a loan of about $410 million from the World Bank for the programme. A team of officials, led by principal secretary (tourism) Sanjiv Saran, have given a presentation before the steering committee meeting of the department of economic affairs (DEA) in New Delhi. A senior official in the team said that the programme aimed at creating an ideal infrastructure and atmosphere to encourage tourists into stretching their stay period which would increase revenue generation. “For instance, an impetus to boating in the Ganga river in Varanasi will directly impact the boatmen community. Promotion of arts and crafts specific to a region will also benefit the poor which are involved in the trade,” the official explained. Specific areas need to be identified in which tourism businesses as well as tourists can directly and indirectly generate benefits for the poor which is what the pro-poor tourism (PPT) means. The strategy for pro-poor tourism include increasing economic benefits by expanding business opportunities for the poor, expanding employment opportunities for the poor, enhancing collective/community income and access to infrastructure and/or basic services intended to support tourism but also benefiting the poor. Enhancing non-economic benefits would entail capacity building, training and empowerment, mitigating the environmental impact of tourism on the poor, and addressing social and cultural impacts of tourism. There will be a need to build a more supportive policy and planning framework, promote participation and bring the private sector into pro-poor partnerships. The state government is hopeful of getting financial support from the World Bank because in a meeting with chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in 2012, World Bank officials had agreed to fund seven sectors, including tourism.
