Apart from engaging in adventure activities, India’s picturesque beaches provide the much needed peace and tranquility to travellers
India, with a vast coastline of 7,517 km bounded by the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, is widely known as a popular tourism destination boasting of some of the most incredible and unexplored beach destinations. Soaking up in the sun, sand and sea experience to celebrate and relax, the quintessential choice of beaches of Goa and Kerala have been the most counted places among travellers. These beaches of the Indian coastline offers one of the best tourist attractions along with adventure water sports including canoeing, catamaran, scuba diving and snorkeling. Apart from the activities, they are also known as honeymoon destinations in India. Calangute Beach located in north Goa is the largest one among all. Calangute and Baga beaches are two close beaches and visited by thousands of international and domestic tourists. Ocean water sports like parasailing, snake boats, sailing and windsurfing are one of the best way to enjoy at Calangute Beach. Beaches of Goa are well famous for its nightlife and cuisines. Other most popular beaches in Goa are Anjuna Beach, Palolem Beach, Candolim Beach and Sinquerim Beach. From a state tourism board perspective, Jagdish Patil, former managing director, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) highlights, “There has been a shift from the rather normal jet skiing or para-sailing to more adventurous watersports like diving off platforms both man-made and natural, white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing and windsurfing. Scuba diving and snorkeling too have seen a huge response across th e country.” Agreeing to the same, Nikhil Desai, director tourism, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) added, “These activities are now gaining popularity in India. Until now people would choose to indulge in them abroad but slowly people are becoming more open to the idea of trying their hand at these sports in India as well. Safety and availability of qualified instructors and equipment are the prime concerns among enthusiasts.”
Diveagar Beach, located in the coastal region of Konkan, is approximately 170 km from Mumbai and 200 km from Pune on the Mumbai-Goa Highway. Diveagar Beach, which is famous among the three beaches, is situated along with nearby towns of Shrivardhan and Harihareshwar and is densely covered with belu trees. The Konkan region of Maharashtra is known for its long coastline with few of the finest white-sand beaches and palm trees like Kashid Beach, Murud Janjira, Ganpatipule and beaches of Mumbai. The Konkan region of Maharashtra is also looking at beautifying its beaches to increase tourism. The Maharashtra government is working with Kokan Bhumi Prastishthan (KBP), an umbrella organsiation of hoteliers, tour operators and tourism with an aim to develop the region’s tourism and promote it globally. The government has given a nod for 13 beaches which will be developed as per international standards and infrastructure. Nandgaon Beach, Arnala Beach, Kashid Beach, Diveagar Beach, Murud Beach, Ladghar Beach, Karde Beach, Hadi Island, Kunkeshwar Beach and Ubhadanda Beach are some of the beaches where the beautification project will commence shortly.
Sanjay Yadavrao, chief executive, Global Kokan, said, “Konkan has more than 100 beaches and every beach has its own speciality. We have now begun work on the beautification projects for 13 beaches with the government’s help. These beaches will be developed with international infrastructure and standards that even foreign tourists will appreciate.” He added, “10 years ago tourism to Konkan was almost zero but now approximately one crore tourists visit Konkan annually. Along with promoting tourism, we will not only build five-star hotels and resorts but also definitely retain our culture and tradition. Sustainable development is what we are pledging for.” The tourism in Konkan is set to receive a big boost as the fifth edition of the Global Konkan Festival in 2015 will be hosted in London.
Down south, Kerala – ‘God’s Own Country’ has a long coastline that offers many opportunities for those who seek beauty and tranquility. Known as the paradise of the south, the most beautiful beach of Kerala, Kovalam is located in Thiruvananthapuram. Kovalam has 17 km of the Arabian Sea coastline and has three excellent beaches known as Lighthouse Beach, Hawah Beach and Samudra Beach. Lighthouse Beach of Kovalam is the major tourist attraction. Alappuzha Beach and Muzhappilangad Beach are two more famous beaches of Kerala, Muzhappilangad Beach is the only drive-in beach in Asia. Stretching over 1000 km along the southern coastline, beaches in Andhra Pradesh are known for being unspoilt and pure holiday destinations. Some of the famous beaches include Ramakrishna Beach, Manginapudi Beach, Bheemunipatam Beach, Mypad Beach, Vodarevu Beach. While Odisha has the famous beaches such as Aryapalli Beach,Balaramgadi Beach, Balighai Beach, Chandipur Beach, Gopalur Beach, Paradeep Beach, Puri Beach.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of 572 Islands consisting of exotic and unexplored beaches. The tropical climate prevails all year round, offering a comfortable holiday experience.
Tapping the niche
With the segment growing rapidly, Major S K Yadav, managing director, Wanderlust Travels points out that apart from leisure, corporate clients are also opting for adventure activities as part of incentive travel which they use for team building exercises. “The segment saw a growth of 22 per cent in 2011 and has been growing since then. India receives nearly 1.5 million inbound tourists for adventure activities,” he mentioned.
To cater to the demands of discerning travellers, the market has a number of operators who deliver products and services for the niche segment. Mumbai based Karina Tourism & Adventures launched Infiniti, India’s first scuba diving live-aboard in the waters of Andaman Islands. The project is a labour of love for Sunil Bakshi, co-founder and director, Karina Tourism & Adventures, who had been diving for 17 years all over the world and always wanted to showcase India as a premier diving destination. The Infiniti Live-aboard offers yacht-based holidays and provides adventure activities such as – scuba diving (main specialisation), surfing (seasonal), angling, snorkeling or general cruising and island excursions. “I have visited many such live-aboards in other parts of the world and wanted to build something like this for India. I believe that diving in India is at par if not better – in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep,” says Bakshi. He believes that in many ways Andaman is the last frontier for diving. “All the other diving areas have been explored by diving enthusiasts who are now looking for new destinations and we can offer them that in India. We offer diving at remote islands in the Andamans such as Barren Island or Narcondam Island – these are the spots with the best diving in the Andamans, in terms of underwater landscape, corals, marine life (Manta Rays), visibility etc,” he adds.
With the influx of the western culture, even globally recognised sports like surfing are slowly gaining popularity in the country. But the biggest challenge for surfing in the subcontinent is the geographical structure. For an ideal surfing destination, the beaches should have a sudden depression, which helps the waves to swell, which is quite not the case for India. Still a selected few locations are popular for this sport and enthusiasts are exploring various locations to promote this sport on a large scale.
As per their customer analysis, an emerging trend that was highlighted was that almost 45 per cent of its individual holiday travellers are youth and the segment is poised to grow at a rate of 25-30 per cent. The product team of Rock-On Holidays has designed itineraries to destinations for young travellers starting from Rs 35,000.
Evolution stage
Giving a perspective on the evolution of the segment so far, Vaibhav Kala, founder and director, Aquaterra states, “In the early 90’s the industry was small and there were few operators. Even though equipments were unavailable clients were well aware of what they were signing up for. The mushrooming came in the mid 2000s, when safety equipment became accessible, the internet finally arrived, and the customer base grew. As the number of outfits grew, the customer base mushroomed and the industry size, supply and demand rose dramatically.”
On the other hand, Dr Sarang Kulkarni, a marine biologist and scuba diving expert, states that earlier adventure activities like scuba diving and snorkeling were popular only amongst the elite class, but now the trend is changing and everyone wants to try these activities. Everyone wants to learn something new and exploring the marine life is the emerging trend for Indians. “Tarkarli and Sindhudurg have water-sports activities, the state tourism department has taken the initiative to start snorkeling activity in Sindhudurg and launched its first scuba diving school in Tarkarli,” adds Kulkarni. Adding to the same, Patil says, “The coast around Sindhudurg and Ratnagri has warm clear waters, and interesting and varied diving and snorkeling sites and MTDC guarantees some of the best scuba and snorkeling activities. Whether you are a first time diver or a certified diver, Tarkarli and Ratnagiri are ideal locations for this activity with the assistance of our experienced PADI instructors. We have planned guided snorkeling trips, pro snorkeling trips, and the Discover Scuba programme where anybody above the age of 10 can participate. Also we have planned training courses in diving which starts at the basic level and one can graduate to become a dive master.”
Lakshadweep Islands is a high growth water sport destination. A M Hussain, assistant director, department of tourism development, Administration of UT of Lakshadweep informs, “We are promoting these islands as a unique water sports destination among the domestic and foreign tourists and expect a 20 per cent increase in tourists inflow this year. Nearly, 5500 domestic and foreign tourists visited the islands last year.” A scuba diving academy has been established in Lakshadweep with dive centres at Kavaratti, Kadamat and Minicoy certified scuba dive courses.