Soft Skills Training Programme for Tourism

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized a Soft Skills Training Programme for the sensitization of stakeholders towards tourism on Thursday, 21st February, 2008 at Amritsar, wherein representatives from various sectors of the tourism industry participated.

Around 250 participants from diverse sectors, including tourism police, hoteliers, restaurateurs, dhabawalas, cab drivers, rickshaw pullers, coolies and others attended the session. Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu, Member of Parliament, Amritsar, and Mr. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar, along with their other senior colleagues from Government of India were present at the workshop.

Takeaways from programme:

It was brought to notice to all attendees that Amritsar was a Gateway to India from the North and that with the International Airport expanding in a big way with many more flights getting added, it was only going to further boost the immense tourism potential the city has.

• Participants were made aware of the importance of promotion of tourism in the city since one lakh tourists visit Amritsar daily and that Amritsar has been continuously developing as a major tourist destination.
  

• The launch of Tourism Police in Amritsar was realized as another big step taken with a view to provide better service to the tourists coming to this holy city of Amritsar.
  

· Trainer shared his views on various issues with regard to the tourism industry. The presentation focussed on various aspects of the hotel and tourism industry including sanitation, cleanliness, food service, energy saving methods, general hygiene and sensitization of stakeholders towards tourism. The session addressed issues and cleared all doubts & queries the stakeholders had with tourism.

Issued raised by participants:

Issue of Communication with Foreign Tourists: A participant from Tourism Police division raised a question of how he was to solve the problem of poor communication with foreign tourists.

Trainer’s Response: The trainer suggested using the phrase “Please Slow” with actions so that words are clearer to follow and understand. He also mentioned that it would be beneficial to undergo training in very basic courses on English speaking. Learning a few standard lines which are most frequently used like “how far is the destination?”, “where could we get medical facilities?”, and few others could also help.

· Issue related to proper place for Tourism Police to be stationed: One of the participants state that the force did not have a place to station their personnel.

Mr. Ramneesh Chaudhary, Incharge Tourism Police apprised the participants that booths were being designed in collaboration with members of the CII, and shall be placed at six locations of the city to begin with.

Issue related to sectoral training within the Tourism industry: A request was made by the Hoteliers and restaurant owners to organise a separate program for training their staff as well. It was decided that separate focussed sessions be organised for the hospitality, logistics and government support agencies.

• Issue raised by member from Taxi Union: Issue related to prepaid taxis and turf demarcation between rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaws and taxi operators.
• Traffic Police’s Response: The issues shall be taken up by the police at their level.