Rajasthan, India

• Client: The World Bank
• Partners: Government of Rajasthan
• Project Duration: May 2016 – September 2016

Project Overview

The government of Rajasthan, India has an ambitious goal to make the region a powerful, developed and prosperous state by 2020 (Vision 2020), with a targeted economic growth rate of 12 percent. While the state’s performance in recent years has been strong in many areas, growth rates have fallen short of this objective, and its issues (lack of quality education, high gender disparities, low urbanization, and water scarcity) have continued to impact citizens and slow progress. Achieving the state’s vision will thus require an acceleration of reform momentum, driven by a properly prioritized strategy.

To this end, the Government of Rajasthan (GoR) has requested World Bank support in preparing a report to inform an overarching development strategy for the state, emphasizing job creation and poverty reduction through sustainable agriculture, structural transformation through industrialization and tourism, and enhanced service delivery. Solimar prepared the tourism chapter of the overall report, which outlined a pathway to structural transformation and growth through tourism, through the preparation of an Investment Strategy for Public and Private Sector Investment in Sustainable and Inclusive Tourism in Rajasthan. This strategy addressed the challenges currently faced by the tourism sector in Rajasthan and provided a practical way for the GoR to leverage the state’s tourism industry to support growth, job creation and poverty reduction, and to improve stewardship of the state’s heritage assets and destinations, by identifying and facilitating investments needed in cultural and natural assets, tourism infrastructure and destination management. The strategy was based on a model of development driven by multi-sector partnerships between private sector companies and investors, state and local governments, and multilateral donors. These partnerships aim to advance catalytic transactions and investments led by the public and private sectors that support GoR development goals. At the same time, the model seeks to support policy reforms and improved governance, using private sector commitments to investment and catalytic transactions to identify and prioritize strategic reforms.

Major Activities

• Conduct a thorough desk research of the tourism sector in Rajasthan to review all available data on tourism in Rajasthan, including visitor statistics, main attractions, policy and regulation, key stakeholders, etc.
• Describe and analyze successful tourism development models from around the world and within India that might be adapted to Rajasthan, as well as examples from elsewhere in Rajasthan that can be found through desk research.
• Visit selected tourism destinations in the state to collect and cross-check information through in situ observations, focus groups, interviews, and consultations
• Develop the final Strategy incorporating all inputs received, and a compiled report on methodology, process, main findings and recommendations for the development of the Strategy for Sustainable and Inclusive Tourism Growth in Rajasthan

Results

• Desk Research Analysis Presentation. Based on findings of the reviews and research, the Solimar team prepared a presentation used during the inception mission to share findings, share exemplary practices and summarize the work plan for discussion with GoR and the World Bank.
• Prioritization and selection of sites for deep dive. Based on the findings of the reviews and research, the Solimar team identified and prioritized the state’s main tourist destinations that were assessed in-depth during the first mission, for their tourism offer, potential, constraints as well as investment and governance needs.
• Draft Tourism Development Strategy, including vision, goals, strategic areas of action developed using a variety of analytical inputs.
• Final Strategy and recommendations incorporating all inputs received, and a compiled report on methodology, process, main findings and recommendations for the development of the Strategy for Sustainable and Inclusive Tourism Growth in Rajasthan. The final strategy included an action plan with policy reform actions and investment recommendations required to operationalize the strategy.