Editorial

Citation

Teare, R., Jauhari, V. and Munjal, S. (2015), "Editorial", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 7 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-04-2015-0020

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Volume 7, Issue 4

For international tourists, a visit to India is synonymous with culture and India is famous for its fairs and festivals – attracting millions of visitors every year. As these cultural events play a key role in the nation’s promotional effort – termed “Incredible India”, this theme issue examines their origin, development and contribution to community life and economic development. I would like to thank Vinnie Jauhari, Sandeep Munjal and their team of writers for providing a detailed review of the heritage and significance of India’s fairs and festivals together with a contemporary analysis of the issues and challenges that need to be addressed.

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development, and we seek to do this by using a key question to focus attention on an industry issue. If you would like to contribute to our work by serving as a WHATT theme editor, do please contact me.

Richard Teare - Managing Editor, WHATT

How can fairs and festivals enhance the economic and cultural wellbeing of India?

This theme issue examines the potential of fairs and festivals to enhance cultural and economic wellbeing in India. India is widely recognized as a “heritage” and “cultural” tourism destination. The wide range of fairs and festivals that are organized and celebrated almost throughout the year not only represents a rich cultural diversity, but these events also act as drivers of economic value and cultural continuity. It is important, however, to probe the success that the country has achieved in terms of leveraging the potential of these cultural assets. The papers selected for this theme issue draw on a diverse range of fairs and festivals. While some are local in their character and reach, others have a national footprint.

The contributions of the authors highlight the immense opportunity that fairs and festivals offer in terms of creating economic value for their local host communities and the country at large. But there are problems too that need to be recognized and addressed. These include: economic leakages, loss of authenticity in cultural expression and local community participation. A lack of stakeholder engagement in certain cases has resulted in alienation of host local communities and even irritation with the event. Our team of contributors also identified aspects of infrastructure development that require government attention at multiple levels so that more visitors can participate and so that the experience for visitors and local people alike can be improved. The information presented and analyzed here reveals some interesting lessons, in particular the fact that the growth and development of the tourism industry in India will depend on how these cultural assets are deployed. Fairs and festivals in India present a unique opportunity for cultural sustainability and economic development.

Reflections arising from this theme issue demonstrate the need for very close cooperation between different stakeholders involved in organizing and managing the large number of diverse fairs and festivals in India. These events represent the “cultural soul” of the nation, hence they deserve support, investment and the facilitation required to position them as drivers of positive cultural and economic value.

Vinnie Jauhari and Sandeep Munjal - Theme Editors

About the Theme Editors

Vinnie Jauhari is Director Education Advocacy at Microsoft Corporation, India. Prior to this, she was Director at the Institute for International Management and Technology (Now Vedatya Institute); she was earlier the Region Lead for HP Labs Open Innovation Office in India. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Services Research and the Journal of Technology Management for Growing Economies and author of more than 100 journal articles in international and national journals. She has authored 12 books on aspects of innovation, technology and services management and serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous international journals.

Sandeep Munjal is Acting Director at Vedatya Institute, Gurgaon. He brings to the role a unique combination of extensive industry and academic experience spanning more than 20 years. He previously worked with industry leaders like the Taj Group of Hotels in India and ARAMARK Corp. in the USA. He has also undertaken an array of hospitality and retailing consultancy assignments in India. In addition to his leadership role at Vedatya Institute, he has played a developmental role in conjunction with non-government organizations in the area of hospitality-related skills development. His research interests include heritage tourism, sustainable practices in the hospitality sector and hospitality operations management. He has authored numerous publications in international and domestic journals.