It is a worldwide accepted fact that most countries are turning to a knowledge-based economy rather than a commodity-based economy. Research is essential and is emerging as a key issue for governments, training institutions, universities and private companies. Our tourism industry is, however, essentially based on the traditional approach ? market driven with short-term objectives. Unfortunately, the tough competition worldwide does not allow us to sleep on our laurels. Focussing on marketing and promotion and making news hype of the room occupancy rate are not measures that will keep our tourism industry healthy. Our policy makers should realise that our tourism industry?s health is deteriorating day by day. The tourism industry includes many Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) which are traditionally market driven ? we thus need to create a platform to make them research driven. Short-term planning will not lead to meaningful outcomes and will not ensure competitiveness and sustainability. We need to invest in tourism research. We should be conscious enough of the complexity of the tourism industry and determine the real solutions for sustainability.

An internal research unit within the ministry of Tourism & Leisure would certainly not help such a large industry contributing heavily to the economy. We need a full fledge body comprising professionals of the industry, stakeholders and research analysts to carry out a long-term research plan for the tourism industry. No proper research has been undertaken apart from individual attempts through external grants and university funds so far. Government has funded research in the fields of science, medicine, technology and agriculture but why not in the tourism sector despite the fact that its contribution to the economy outperforms that of other industries. Such a tourism research body would require substantial budget to carry out appropriate research so as to maintain competitiveness and guarantee sustainability of the tourism industry in the long run. The perception that tourism is only about tourists visiting the country, recreation and having a good time has been shattered by the hard realities of the downturn in the industry following September 11, the Bali bombing, the SARS outbreak and the war in Iraq. The tourism industry has considerably grown as an export sector and the need to move from classic promotion into research is therefore of utmost importance. The Australian experience through the implementation of the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism (CRCST) has delivered commercial outcomes from research investments ? we may inspire from this model for our tourism industry.

We all know our feeder markets, we all know about press tours, we all know about educational tours, but are we conscious of more important factors playing against us? Should our tourism industry keep on relying only on promotion through organising trade fairs and attending photo shoot sessions with stars? It is truly said: ?Si vous continuez à faire ce que vous avez toujours fait, vous obtiendrez ce que vous avez toujours obtenu.?

Kailash HURREE