Historical Development of Tourism Education in India: the Case of the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Research Paper Historical Development of Tourism Education in India: The Case of the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand S. C. Bagri Dean, School of Management, Tourism & Hoteliering Professor & Director, Centre for Mountain Tourism & Hospitality Studies H.N.B Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal) Uttarakhand - 246174. INDIA A. Suresh Babu Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism & Travel Management Government Arts College, Ooty-643002 Tamil Nadu INDIA Abstract: Having acknowledged with prominent share in education sector both domestically and globally, the subcontinent of India is exploring possible opportunities in positioning itself as an admired educational destination. Incidentally with respect to tourism education, India does not shine and share maximum benefits as its counterparts in the other continents enjoy. The present paper is an attempt to showcase the roadblocks found in Indian tourism education with special emphasis on the mountainous Uttarakhand state. With its unsurpassed beauty the whole of the state is itself a tourism treasure and the need for tourism education have become imperative to develop and to promote the same. The study was based on primary and secondary data collected during December 2009-March 2010 in Garhwal Himalaya of the Uttarakhand state. Necessary statistical tests like ANOVA, Mann Whitney etc are employed to arrive out meaningful results. A structured questionnaire were used as an instrument for collecting primary data from students (150) & faculty members (50) and the review of journals, reports, information material serves the need of secondary data accordingly. The output elucidates the failure to concentrate on certain significant areas by educational service providers put the state and country much behind than its western counterparts. The study further clearly explains the drawbacks possessed by the country and state when compared to other benchmarked countries. It also conveys the need for robust change in tourism education system of the subcontinent especially in the identified state to position as an admired destination for tourism related education. Keywords: Leisure, opportunities, recreation, sub-continent, tourism Introduction ndia, one of the developing economies in the Asian continent is emerging Ias a major hub and making its presence in all sorts of developmental activities. It is becoming a favored destination for all sectors due to the positive environment and the untiring human resources. The presence of successful educational institutions educating the necessary manpower would take sufficient credit to get acclaimed as a most favored destination. The Journal of Tourism, Volume XII, No. 1, 2011 © 2011 by CMTHS-HNB Garhwal University (A Central University), India. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2019561 Historical Development of Tourism Education in India: The Case of the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand role of educational institutions in this regard is spellbinding by housing century old educational institutions across length and breadth of the country. From long past, the subcontinent is renowned for its education in all diversified disciplines and it is changing its position in accommodating the newer courses across upcoming disciplines. India is becoming a panacea for many limitations in terms of development of study programmes in upcoming disciplines by supplying the skilled manpower to the developed nations. In that run, having blessed with the divergent unsurpassed beauty, India keeps attracting tourists from far and near of all shades of the society, is well understanding the needs of tourism education to retain the name “must see destination” for long run. Though, tourism in India is an old and fabulous experience from long back, the need of having a training school to develop the human resources to deliver services to tourists doesn’t found space during those times. Gradually, the time has come to give value to the money being spent by tourist in a destination, accordingly the expectations among the tourists also increased, which leads to satisfaction and delight stages which the tourism service provider intends to grab and experience. The panacea for developing the desired skills for service deliveries through educating them in a formal way has gained significance later and the same is been paid attention by the think tanks from academics and industry stakeholders. The result of the desired exercise has taken its shape in terms of diploma programme in tourism in 1970’s and slowly it gained significance through the acceptance and popularity from the industry. Slowly, many universities have come forward to offer tourism course at diploma, PG diploma level. The success of the course has motivated almost 20 -25 universities across the vast sub-continent to offer tourism course at varying levels. Government of India under its tourism ministry wing has initiated an autonomous Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM) in Gwalior during 80’s. In this row many private colleges and universities (Deemed) are also in the race of offering tourism related course presently. Tourism Education-Past, Present and Future Tourism education is viewed as the driving force in developing tourism for any country and it is given high momentum by the developing countries to develop tourism, but most of the developing countries could not create conducive environment for tourism education. It is often perceived that tourism education is almost based on international perspective. Many experts view tourism education towards local perspective which also ensures the local development of region and community (Burkart and Medlik, 1974; Tribe, 1997 & Bergsma, 2000). Having gained brief background about 40 Journal of Tourism, Volume XII, No.1, 2011 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2019561 S. C. Bagri and A. Suresh Babu tourism education, the development and existence of tourism education in Indian sub-continent explores in three stages (i.e. Past, Present and Future). It is very difficult to differentiate between past and present as India started offering tourism course only in the recent past of some 3 decades back. The past of tourism education as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, used to be vocational in nature. There was no degree and higher level of education in this field as only diploma and PG diploma course was found. Though the need of the past was served through the then found course, through few visionary leaders and academicians the diploma programs have been reshaped and upgraded into degree programs and slowly there happen to be much confusion in this regard. The commonly raised confusion includes what could be the modules, does any literature exist to frame the necessary modules, from where does the knowledge arise, what is the guiding way and stepping stone etc made academicians to work out. It is almost known as a professional course and sufficient development has arrived and ended at a space of interdisciplinary approach, getting varied subjects from various courses and still it is found to be multidisciplinary in nature (Bagri, 2007). The next assignment for the academicians was to identify the modules and subjects for various programs of different levels. The subjects from management, commerce, finance, history, geography, geology, and economics have been borrowed to frame the course curriculum as expected by industry, leaving the image of vocational course to certain extent (Kukreti, 2007; Bansal, 2006). With the development of such interdisciplinary modules in tourism education, it has expanded its wings to mold the students in varied aspects. Industry has also developed and expanded in many ways. Incidentally, there is a notion that the course offered by the universities does not comply with the expectations of the industry, being considered as the limitation for the present curriculum (Bharadwaj et al., 2006; Bagri, 2010). The tourism education of the past could be considered as an introductory stage where the absence of educational institutions offering tourism education was found and common in nature. However, in a due course, Indian subcontinent had changed its position with its visionary leaders contributing to frame tourism curriculum. Though tourism education has attained a respectable position in India by having various modules for the desired degree, it has also left some of the confusions like to which discipline it belongs, since nomenclature and framework of the degree keeps varying from university to university. Incidentally, more management oriented subjects are inducted into tourism education and leads to award MBA (Tourism), still there are universities Journal of Tourism, Volume XII, No. 1, 2011 41 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2019561 Historical Development of Tourism Education in India: The Case of the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand offering tourism degree as Masters of Tourism Administration (MTA), Master of Arts in Tourism (MA-T), Master of Tourism Management (MTM) and M.Sc in Tourism too. This is one of the major confusion among the students in opting course in tourism education and accordingly the employability after completing those courses varies. Variation in syllabi across universities, approval and recognition patterns by governmental bodies, eligibility criteria all put together to create wide gap in the present form of tourism education. It even fails to pull the specialized students to engage in this education, may be the awareness created among the students