Boosting the Tourism Industry in Bihar

(Draft Report)
A. Executive Summary

Amongst all the states of the country, Bihar is in all probability the one that enjoys a distinctive history. It is here that
religions followed the world over, Buddhism and Jainism were born, even as Hinduism flourished. It is here that an
important advocate of a fourth religion – Guru Gobind Singh of the Sikhs was born. And it is here that the world’s first
institution of higher education at Nalanda was established. And if all that is not sufficient, it was in Bihar that Gandhiji
launched his Satyagraha movement in opposition to the British rule. (Cameron, 2008)

Bihar without doubt bears the profound weight of history but bears it with much warmth and awareness. For both
Buddhists and Jains, the land abounds with monuments and sacred pilgrimage centres, while the Hindus have no fewer
temples. However, it has not shied away from accepting the modern. The old learning centres continue in the structure
of newer centres of excellence, the olden-day trade hubs have paved the way for the fresh economy and even newer
technologies.

However, the rich tradition of Bihar and its profound history has been shadowed by years of misgovernance, corruption,
and infighting by successive governments, thus denying Bihar entry into the worlds’ and India’s elite list of places to visit.

This document is an attempt to highlight the tourism scenario in Bihar considering recent policy initiatives and how
policies could be evolved to address the ever-changing tourist landscape. The document focuses on analysing various
government initiatives as well as best practices followed across the country and the world and thus recommends gaps in
the current system and what could be learned and done to boost tourism in Bihar

B. Analysing the Current Tourism Trends and Concerns

1. Demographic Profiling of the Tourists

2. Domestic and Foreign Travellers
3. Tourist Destinations

Bihar is the land where the Gautama Buddha had walked and got enlightened under the Bodhi tree, in Bodh Gaya and
gave birth to the religion Buddhism. Bodh Gaya is a part of the Buddhist circuit, a sacred site for the followers – also
referred as Mecca of Buddhists. However, there still lacks proper infrastructure for the foreign tourists as the number of
branded hotels/ 5star hotels is just 1 whereas its counterpart Sarnath, in U.P has five 5-star hotels and 1 heritage hotel
(Brij Palace). Hence, it can be concluded that the number of foreign tourists to Bodh Gaya was 42% less compared to
Sarnath which also falls under the Buddhist circuit 1

1
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/911791487142754943/pdf/112816-WP-IN-Buddhist-Circuit-Tourism-Strategy-PUBLIC.pdf
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
Figure 1 – Buddhist Circuit 20132

From the graph, it can be interpreted that there is a good number of international tourist inflow for religious/spiritual
reasons. These tourists, mostly, have planned trips as their average intended stay is longer. They all enter the capital
Delhi though flights. Since there is just one direct flight per day from Delhi to Gaya and one international flight each
from Thailand, Myanmar, Priyanka and Nepal in peak season (October to February), people prefer to reach Patna and
then commute to Gaya either through trains or buses. Lack of infrastructure, most of the tourists prefer to stay in the
monasteries built by their own countries in the Buddhist Circuit. Also, Bihar ranks at the bottom when it comes to the
branded hotel infrastructure in Indian state 3. On the contrary, Bihar is the 9th most preferred state for travel by
international tourists and 15th for domestic travellers4. 0.7% of India’s population, i.e., around 9 million people and
roughly between 7-8% of total world’s population, i.e., around 535 million people practices Buddhism. This helps us to
know that Bihar can climb to top of the table if the infrastructure is improved.

The other most sought tourist places in Bihar are Rajbir and Nalanda. Rajgir, famous for water springs had welcomed
more than 3.7 million domestic tourists and around 4 lakh international tourists where in 83% of domestic tourists
travelled for spiritual reasons and interestingly around 50% of foreign tourists travelled for leisure. It was similar in the
case of Nalanda as well5. This proves the potential the state of Bihar has, not just for the religious tourism but also for a)
Eco tourism for wildlife lovers to visit Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary Observatory which is to be
opened soon and b) Culinary tourism for gourmands as Bihar boasts of more than 101 indigenous delicacies (India is a
nation of foodies) and c) Rural Tourism portraying the beautiful Madhubani art of painting for art enthusiasts. These are
the sections still untapped. If concentrated, there could be a lot of employment generated for the locals.

The Primary mode of transportations (To arrive in the state) are up to the mark. However, the secondary and tertiary
modes of travel have issues. Inconvenient rail train travel timings between sites, poor road quality, lengthy travel times,
(200km train journey from Patna to Madhubani takes 7 hours) are some of the hindrances the tourists face 6

Tourist safety is another concern. The high crime rate in Bihar, 37.5 violent crimes per lakh population also impact the
notion that tourists have of the State. The 2009 Bihar Tourism Policy suggested that a Tourism Security Cell be set up,
however, this has not been implemented to date. 7

C. Current Policy Initiatives

1. Bihar Tourism Policy

The Bihar tourism policy 2009 is a well-articulated document defining the key areas where the focus needs to go to
boost tourism in Bihar and the roles which different bodies need to play in this journey. The policy charts our cultural,
religious and wellness tourism as top priority while laying down the roadmap of a “Blissful Bihar”. It addresses the right
areas such security for tourists, integrated development models, promotion & marketing, augmented hospitality
capacity, transport & connectivity, improvement & expansion of tourism products, development of human resources
etc.

The policy also highlights the pivotal role the state government must play along with the roles of various nodal bodies
such as the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation. The policy lays special emphasis on incentivising private

2
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/911791487142754943/pdf/112816-WP-IN-Buddhist-Circuit-Tourism-Strategy-PUBLIC.pdf - pg. 35
3
https://www.hotelierindia.com/business/8982-delhi-ranks-1st-in-presence-of-branded-hotel-rooms-india-state-ranking-survey
4
https://tourism.gov.in/sites/default/files/2020-08/Figures.pdf
5http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/911791487142754943/pdf/112816-WP-IN-Buddhist-Circuit-Tourism-Strategy-PUBLIC.pdf

6
Pg15.16, Investing in the Buddhist Circuit, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group,
http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/911791487142754943/pdf/112816-WP-IN-Buddhist-Circuit-Tourism-Strategy-PUBLIC.pdf
7
Crime Report 2019, https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/CII%202019%20Volume%201.pdf
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
participation in the development of Bihar as a top tourist destination.

2. SWADESH DARSHAN YOJANA

India’s rich cultural, historical, religious, and natural heritage provides a huge potential for development of tourism. This
can be achieved only through an integrated approach by providing engaging experiences for distinct categories of
tourists

In due recognition to this the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism (MoT) launched the Swadesh Darshan Scheme
(Central Sector Scheme)– for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country in 2014-15. The
Swadesh Darshan Yojana has till date sanctioned 75 projects spread across multiple circuits in India. Out of these 75
projects, 5 exist in Bihar spread across Buddhist Circuit (2), Spiritual Circuit (2) & Rural Circuit (1). All these projects were
sanctioned in year 2016 & 2017

3. Other Central Government Schemes

Various other central government schemes such as Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive
(PRASHAD) and Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) specifically focuses on providing well
planned tourism infrastructure, enabling tourist convenience, accessibility, security, and cleanliness. Along with this it
also provides for the tourist to experience and revitalize / preserve the soul of the pilgrimage/heritage city through
integrated, inclusive, and sustainable developments that would spur employment opportunities for the local
communities.

Gaya in Bihar has been selected as one of the many cities across India where both PRASAD & HRIDAY are to be
implemented.

4. Policy Effectiveness & Scope for Improvement8

Since the introduction of Bihar Tourism Policy 2009, Bihar has seen a growth in tourist inflow which signifies a direct
correlation between the policy design and its effectiveness. However, Bihar still stands at no. 14 when compared with
other states on the number of tourist visits signifying a huge scope for improvement.

One of the other key parameters looked at while finding out the policy effectiveness is the presence of branded & luxury
hotels in the state. Since as a part of the Bihar tourism policy the framework emphasised on the need of more private
partnerships to increase the hospitality infrastructure of the state. This data shows an abysmal situation of the state on
this parameter as Bihar ranks 25th out of 26 ranked states signifying failure of the policy in boosting this objective.

This ranking and parameter of presence of branded hotels is also linked to the ease of doing business index for the state.
The state ranks 26th on this parameter which creates a direct correlation to why the policy has not been effective. 9

The 2009 policy also made Marketing & Promotion as an objective to boost Bihar Tourism. However, the performance
on this front is also dismal. Effectiveness of marketing campaign was analysed on 3 parameters namely, expenditure on
marketing, social media outreach and the ranking of state government’s tourism websites. Bihar ranked 30 th, 19th and
24th respectively on these parameters signifying the ineffectiveness of the policy. Parameter where Bihar outperforms
other states and is able to come in the top 10 ranking is road and rail infrastructure. Bihar ranks 7 th in its road
infrastructure parameter and 3rd in the rail infrastructure parameter.

While speaking with few of the stakeholders to gauge the policy effectiveness and the reason behind the poor show in
these rankings, the main reason came out to be inefficient implementation and lack of coordination amongst the local

8
Kapoor, Manav Thadani and Karan, et al. “India State Ranking Survey – 2019.” Hotelivate, 10 Aug. 2020, hotelivate.com/hotel-development/india-
state-ranking-survey-2019/. 
9
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/state-26th-in-ease-of-doing-biz/articleshow/77953772.cms
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
development bodies. From the interaction with local tour agencies in Bihar, it has come to light that there is a lack of
wayside amenities and basic infrastructure even at key sites like the Vishnupad Temple in Gaya. Of the 19.75cr
sanctioned by the central government for the development of the wayside amenities in the UP Bihar circuit - sub-
scheme 2018-19, none of the money has been released yet. 10

Furthermore, there are few to no state tour guides actively in charge of locations. While the State Tourism Department
does offer license registrations, lack of adequate remuneration causes most of these tour guides to become inactive.
Private associations like the Bihar Tourism Association, which is a body comprising private hotels, travel agencies,
transport companies, tour guides, would actively conduct training programs for them but the lack of remuneration to
such personnel renders the tourist sites ill-equipped to guide the tourist footfall.

Even the Mahabodhi Convention centre work in Gaya as conceptualised under the PRASAD scheme commenced in
September 2018 was expected to be completed by March 2020, however as of current date it is still less than 50%
complete. The larger master plan - perimeter regulations keep changing without proper planning. For example, 1 km
radius from the convention centre was declared as non-vehicular areas, causing traffic blocks and difficulty for tourists.
Similarly, The Patna Sahib Infrastructure development work after almost 90% completion, was ordered to be demolished
by the municipal corporation declaring it as illegal construction. At present the matter is stuck in court cases. The tender
invited was floated by the Rail Land Development Authority, and the conflict at present is with this authority (CENTRE)
and the Patna Municipal Corporation, over the jurisdiction over the land of development. 11

The Bihar Tourism Policy 2009 also talks about setting up of the Tourist Security Task Force - to counter the issues of
tourist safety, which unfortunately has not been executed by the BSTDC.

Few of the parameters covered above and the examples cited shows the good, bad and ugly of Bihar tourism and also
depicts the weaknesses in the current scenario because of which Bihar is lagging behind in the race to become a top
tourist destination of the country.

D. Best Practices to Learn From

Bihar struggles from problems of its own, created by decades of misrule and corruption and tourism can be a way
forward for Bihar to come out of its negative image and give a boost to its local economy. For this to happen, we need to
look at how other top performing states have done in terms of tourism and how Bihar could learn from them.

While talking about the best practices in tourism it is imperative to take into account how these best practices are
boosting sustainable tourism and hence as a way forward we will look at best practices from a sustainable tourism
standpoint which could help Bihar regain its historic glory.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines Sustainable Tourism as ‘Tourism that takes full
account of its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the
industry, the environment, and host communities’. 12

The concept of Sustainable Tourism has emerged to balance the diverse aspects of tourism development. Rather than
being a type of product, it is an ethos that underpins all tourism activities. Sustainable tourism is all about leveraging the
communities and natural resources in a way to maximise the output and minimizing the negative impact. 13

Case Study 1: Leading the way- Kerala Tourism14

10
https://tourism.gov.in/sites/default/files/2020-03/usq%202252%20for%2002122019.pdf
11
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/161674556/
12
https://home.kpmg/in/en/home/insights/2020/06/towards-sustainability-reimagining-india-s-tourism-sector.html
13
https://www.yesbank.in/pdf/sustainable_tourism_in_india_initiatives_and_opportunities.pdf
14
https://www.gaiadiscovery.com/latest-places/sustainable-tourism-in-india-policies-and-practices.html
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
Kerala is the first state in India that has been conferred upon the top United Nations Award, UNWTO Ulysses Award for
Innovation in Public Policy and Governance, the highest honour given to government bodies for shaping global
leadership and creating innovative initiatives for sustainable tourism.

The path-breaking 'Responsible Tourism' (RT) project in Kumarakom has successfully linked the local community with
the hospitality industry and government departments, thereby creating a model for empowerment and development of
the people in the area while sustaining eco-friendly tourism. This was achieved through a three-pronged strategy
encompassing:

Economic responsibility: To revive agriculture in the region, the Kumarakom Panchayat (local self-government)
established a link between local farmers and hotels for the uninterrupted supply of vegetables. Activities undertaken
were designed in such a way that all stakeholders get an equitable share in the economic benefits of tourism. The RT
initiative was established to enable continuous dialogue between concerned parties and resolve concerns in price,
quality and regularity of supply and regulate the supply chain mechanism.

Social responsibility: A detailed study was conducted to identify the local art and culture of the area; women and
children were involved to form cultural groups and perform in hotels and resorts with the support of the RT Cell. An
innovative package was developed under the RT initiative called the Village Life Experiences (VLI) Packages - a day with
farmers, a day with fishermen and beyond the backwaters - to showcase rural life and sustain traditional occupations.

Environmental responsibility: The RT Cell collaborated with the local Gram Panchayat in organizing and training for the
program called ‘Zero Waste Kumarakom’ and a subsequent one on vermicomposting for proper waste disposal and
treatment in the area. Additionally, mangrove regeneration programs were organized in which seeds were distributed to
resort owners to plant in backwaters and local clubs, students, activists were roped in to create awareness.

Case Study 2: The Homestay Scheme: Himachal Tourism15

The government of Himachal Pradesh came up with a novel scheme that not only promises authentic experiences to
tourists but also ensures that host communities reap maximum benefits.

The ‘Home Stay’ Scheme seeks to draw tourists away from the crowded urban areas to the rural hinterland replete with
natural surroundings, by providing them clean, comfortable and budget-friendly accommodation and food. The scheme
helped divert the tourist traffic to new untapped places while also ensuring an alternate source of income generation for
rural folks. The Himachal Pradesh government provided several incentives to promote this scheme such as exempting
home stay units from luxury and sales tax and charging domestic rates of electricity and water. The Department of
Tourism lists the registered Homestay houses on its website, free of charge. It also includes them in the online
Reservation system, on payment of commission, as fixed by the department from time to time, which automatically
generates clientele for the stakeholders.

The Himachal Pradesh government also came up with a scheme called ‘Har Gaon ki Kahaani’ (the story of every village).
The villagers were asked to come up with fascinating tales, folklores and anecdotes related to their villages to lure
tourists. Selected stories were compiled into a book and spread across various marketing channels; the funds thus raised
were used to improve rural infrastructural facilities of the state.

The unconventional schemes received overwhelming response from local communities and international tourists. In
three years, there were a total of 891 rooms and 332 units registered under the Home Stay Scheme. It also received 25
awards including the National Level Award for Rural Tourism Promotion.

Case Study 3: Compilation of Best Practices being followed in Different Countries

15
https://www.gaiadiscovery.com/latest-places/sustainable-tourism-in-india-policies-and-practices.html
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
As part of benchmarking, the below countries’ best practices were identified, under two categories -

a) Service Design
b) Linkage with Intermediaries

Bihar, is at a similar stage in terms of bringing in more digitization in its existing service delivery and institutionalizing
linkages with intermediaries to drive increase in both tourism offerings & improvement in quality of tourism products.

- In the Bahamas, “Digitization of the entire process” to enhance the travel experience focused both on
streamlining booking experience (including linkages to share directly on Social Media with Friends /
Family) and simultaneously collect critical market information from tourists 16, has been deployed at scale.

Another program in the Bahamas, Promoting Local through a program “Authentically ….”has been the
focus: Through this local entrepreneurs are encouraged to showcase their wares to tourists, through
designated prominent placements around heritage hotspots as well as in & around hotel/travel
infrastructure, etc. This also extends to promoting local cuisine, using only local products. All of this has
also led to an enhanced partnership between the informal sector & mainstream tourism. 14

- In Gambia, enhancing linkages between small-scale enterprises & mainstream tourism - under “re-
distribution of resources” is another theme, which has been the focus. This has been enabled by making
small organizations work together to improve the earning capacity - through a government body along
with implementing a “Code of Conducts” as a guiding principle. This is run through both a sense of
responsibility & accountability.14

- Focused on ensuring Quality Tourism Products & Services, a Quality Certification Programme was
established by Trinidad & Tobago. A joint venture between the Government Tourism Body, Bureau of
Standard Body, and the Hospitality & Tourism Institute - meant for ensuring compliance by all the
tourism operators/touch points to a certain operational standard, along with linking the program to
certain benefits for the operators.14

All the above best practices can be directly leveraged for implementation in Bihar - after contextualization. These
directly address the gaps, which do exist currently.

E. Use of Technology & Data in tourism 

Possibility of leveraging digital & analytics (artificial intelligence) to enhance travel experiences, across the value chain
(from inquiry, awareness to re-targeting) to bring personalization (tailor-made suggestions), targeted marketing &
explore various other use cases is the focus of this section.

But before all of that, where do we stand currently from the data & technology maturity standpoint? Do we actually
know who the tourists in Bihar are, what they want & what exactly is impacting their travel experience as a whole?
Even going a step back - how much can we rely on existing tourism data collected / available in public documents, etc.?
As per a research study sanctioned by IIM Bangalore16 , the current finding are largely based on observation /
experience of tour operators - complemented by estimates for extrapolation, including anecdotal profiling of tourists

16
Pg 2,4,3 “BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDIES IN TOURISM.” www.intracen.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=52372.
17
https://www.iimb.ac.in/sites/default/files/2018-07/Reflections_on_India%27s_tourism_policy.pdf
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
sourced from local population / operators, with an even more fragmented repository on Travel Experiences as a whole.
There are several practical problems highlighted in capturing of data, information base being confined to the officially
approved hotels / agents / operators, which might be having a serious negative impact on the quality of data. 17
There have been attempts to get a more reliable ground report, through large scale domestic tourism surveys. However,
the statistics arrived at, after such exercises - do they continue to reflect ground realities after 1-2 years? Especially,
given some of the State Initiatives / Policy Recommendations - based on these data points / findings - continue to direct
efforts for the next few years?
Do those efforts continue to take us in the right direction? Or even more importantly, are we missing out on
incorporating recent insights about tourists - for example, Interactive Digital Kiosks in heritage sites, being preferred by a
majority of tourists for information consumption about the site & more - simply because our existing information
systems will take some time to highlight these in the first place?
The topic of Observation of Tourists behaviours (in different stages) in itself is complex enough for effective capturing -
because of sheer diversity - and extremely important given that it is a key element for planning & implementation of
tourists services both in the present & the future.
The report17 also emphasizes that the current Tourism statistics ecosystem, leads to a serious discrepancy between the
ground reality & the official perception about the state of tourism. And more importantly the fact that estimation is key
to arrive at elementary figures (including # of domestic tourists, etc.), highlights the need for a more scientific approach -
one which leads to a more robust Tourists & Tourism database in general, which will also power our Analytics Use cases
to enhance Tourism profile of the state.

Moving into Leveraging Technology & Data ecosystem - The ongoing advancements are being utilized by private
organizations, who have extensively started using big data to make their approaches more customer centric, including
building strong reinforcement loops, to keep those aligned at all times. While on the Private Institutions’ side, we have
come across Analytics Use cases deployed to maximize return on initiatives in the tourism space, little to no quality
literature is available on how Government Institutions have been able to build Centres of Excellence with a strong focus
on leveraging data & technology for driving tourism - this also includes lack of quality literature on Impactful Public
Private Partnership in this space. However, there are a lot of references available - on the use cases side - which can be
leveraged for deployment, as a focused goal for impacting almost all the touchpoints in the value chain (from Pre-Travel
to Post-Travel). The most notable ones being:

1. A private hotel chain18, working on improving segmentation for their marketing campaigns to increase
their efficacy and optimize the investment.

2. Sentiment analysis of social media posts19, to identify & act on both positive (reinforcement) and negative
(for targeted improvement) sentiments.

3. Optimizing Pricing Strategies as part of Competitive Offerings, including Route Optimization to help
minimize Travel Cost20

4. Forecasting Travel / Seasonal Trends, to assess growth & reduction in demand - and accordingly plan
backwards to have optimum resources allocation (especially on the Human Resource side).

17
https://www.iimb.ac.in/sites/default/files/2018-07/Reflections_on_India%27s_tourism_policy.pdf
18https://www.accenture.com/cr-en/case-studies/travel/melia-hotels-digital-transformation-future
19https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/datascience/data-science-and-ai-in-the-travel-industry-9-real-life-use-cases/
20https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/02/top-7-data-science-use-cases-travel.html
18

19

20

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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
 5. Integration of Virtual Assistants (almost on all the digital touch points, including websites / kiosks, etc.) -
to streamline the experience.

6. Customer Profiling & using this to build recommendations for Up-selling & Cross-selling.

7. Hyper-targeting consumers with personalized real time ads, to help drive conversions.

8. Leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) at Tourists spots & more importantly on digital touchpoints, to provide
(& promise) an immersive Travel Experience.

9. ...

From where we stand today, these use cases are only the tip of the Iceberg. Data sciences is helping disrupt the entire
travel industry, to help enhance the travel experience at scale. From a policy standpoint, how do we enable structures to
maximize leveraging data & technology interventions, both within our Government Bodies & through Public Private
Partnership - is the direction we want to take.

Recommendations & Way Forward

a) Greater Collaboration Between Implementation & Executive Agencies

We have observed in the above literature review that the Bihar Tourism Policy 2009 along with various central
government bodies brings out the right vision for the state, however most of the points talked about in the policies have
failed to deliver.

On the collaboration front, the policy talks about establishment of Bihar tourism and promotion council as an integrated
body which will work towards ensuring greater coordination amongst multiple agencies. Unfortunately, 12 years after
the policy of introduced such council is yet to be made functional

Our recommendation would be to take a page out of the Central govt. smart city scheme where all redevelopment work
is carried out 21 under a section 8, special purpose vehicle formed under the Companies Act 2013. This SPV would be
responsible for end to end planning and implementation of tourism policies in the state alongside benefiting from being
a company and thus can attract private players for consultation as well as funding. This SPV would also play a pivotal role
is establishing ease of doing business in Bihar and thus attract more private investments which is fundamental in the
growth story of Bihar tourism.

b) Inclusive Tourism Outlook

As we have talked about the need for responsible and sustainable tourism as a way forward, our key recommendation
would be to start involving communities in the development of Bihar as a tourist destination as done by Himachal
Pradesh and Kerala.

The state should come up with a framework to encourage participation of local communities in delivering the last mile
services to the tourists. We have observed that security along with non-maintenance of infrastructure are major
roadblocks for tourists to flourish. The local communities could be involved and incentivised in maintaining the nearby
infrastructure and provide a safe environment for tourists.

It is also true that no government or public representative knows better about the state's hinterland than local
communities themselves. This knowledge and resource could be further leveraged in promoting traditional art & craft,
21
21https://www.cagmc.com/special-purpose-vehicle/
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
culinary culture, rural and eco-tourism to name a few avenues which have seen greater demand from tourists in the
recent past.

c) Creating a Unique Selling Point for the state22

While it's essential to have adequate infrastructure, ecosystem, security, and all other factors which directly impacts
tourism in a geography what we have realised acts as a catalyst for tourism is a unique selling point.

Even with its own issues Uttar Pradesh is one of the top tourist states in the country, majorly owing to the presence of
the Taj Mahal and partially to the presence of the holy town of Varanasi. Similarly, Kerala has rich biodiversity along with
its backwaters, goa has mystic beaches and the northern hill states have the majestic Himalayas acting as the unique
selling point for the tourists. What Bihar lacks is such a unique selling point which every potential tourist could associate
themselves with.

Currently the USP which Bihar has is Bodh Gaya where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment, however that majorly
attracts only people associated with Buddhism. Bihar has either the choice of selling Buddhism as a concept which
everyone should be acquainted to in their lifetime or to create another selling point which every ordinary citizen can
associate themselves with

d) Strengthened Marketing and Branding Strategies.

The BSTDC should be promoting tourism destinations and popularising Bihar as a destination via print, electronic
medium, short films, advertisements. They could refer to the branding strategies of Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd,
which actively creates and promotes content on the various destinations and experiences the state has to offer.
Collaborations with local content creators, to appoint a renowned personality as a state ambassador could assist in
marketing Bihar as a tourist destination.

For Inviting Private investments in PPP schemes to develop infrastructure for tourism, Bihar could follow Uttar Pradesh’s
initiative, in creating a holistic one stop branding brochure that explains the sectoral overview of tourism in Bihar along
with highlighting capital investment subsidies, incentives and loan waivers offered by the PSBs, key projects for
investments, leasable properties in the State. Gujrat too offers Investor Facilitation Kit’s that offer all necessary
resources private investors might require. Bihar could also look at popularizing its destinations through film media. Uttar
Pradesh has created a film policy that provides subsidies to films that have at least 50% content shot in the state 23

e) Integrating Information Insights Centre (IIC) as a Centre of Excellence within Bihar State Tourism Development
Corporation (BSTDC)

Tourists’ are characterised by evolving preferences, more amplified by exposure to newer technologies in almost every
walk of life. Monitoring the tourists’ behaviour will continue to be a key factor in development, implementation &
marketing of tourism products - while incorporating the ever-increasing tourists’ diversity efficiently. From real time
capturing of behavioural insights to bringing in agility in implementation at scale, using digital interventions is going to
be the differentiator, is what we strongly believe in.

That revolving around one principle -

“Every action what a tourist takes (both online & offline), should be leveraged to personalize the experience for him /
her - followed by real time categorization of tourists’ in the bucket (offerings / products), which best serves their need”

And hence the creation of Information Insights Centre (IIC) - focused on driving below objectives,

22
22https://destinationthink.com/blog/destination-needs-find-unique-selling-proposition/#:~:text=As%20a%20destination%20marketer%2C
%20finding,seek%20to%20visit%20your%20destination.
23
http://invest.up.gov.in/wp-content/themes/investup/pdf/Tourism-brochure.pdf
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Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report
- Maturing Data Ecosystems, focused on -

a) Creating Tourists’ One view - Foundation for all the Analytics Use Cases

This will have all the demographic wise data of the tourists, their engagement data with both digital touchpoints,
offered by State or private players for Bihar. This will also include Heritage Sites wise cuts.

b) Strengthening existing Data Sources - focused on real time integration & bringing more reliability

- Facilitating market research on Tourists’ Behaviours (including independent factors driving tourism within the
region, etc.) through market research & constantly merging those with data insights.

- Creating & Implementing Analytics Road Map - from basic descriptive analysis, to advanced machine learning &
AI use cases, to help strengthen tourism products, driving conversions, enhance travel experience, maximize return
on investment & much more.

- Responsible for Technology Evaluation - like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotic
Process Automation (RPA) 24... - and Recommending relevant Applications Use Cases for both,

a) Enhancing travel experiences

b) And enabling creating & capturing of more & more digital footprints (data points) of the tourists, to understand
their behaviour, etc.

We strongly believe that this department within the State Body, with a proper Organization Structure - can help bring a
Paradigm Shift, both on its own & by extensively collaborating with Private Organizations (having relevant capabilities).
As this department will mature more & more, additional technology & analytics related responsibilities can be attached -
as part of continuous evolution!

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24https://www.revfine.com/technology-trends-travel-industry/

NOTES: We have not incorporated the MICE Tourism, since our secondary research did not led to that part of tourism.

24
http://invest.up.gov.in/wp-content/themes/investup/pdf/Tourism-brochure.pdf
10
Boosting Tourism in Bihar – Draft Policy Report