A Perspective on the term infrastructure for the travel industry

The blog emerged from my discussion with my wife where we discussed how my thoughts about travel industry which I have been fortunate to analyze and experience as an analyst with PhoCusWright covering APAC and Europe for the past five years. One of the advantages of being a travel analyst is that one can actually have 360degree experience of the product or experience unlike a semi-conductor or packaged software analysts. Recently after I authored a report on the Indian online travel market. The term infrastructure kept coming to me. As we all are aware the infrastructure has come to refer to world class airports, expressways, public hygiene, technology infrastructure. A country like India scores very poorly on previously defined "infrastructure". But let us take a step back and look at infrastructure that is built in the U.S for instance Las Vegas, where they spent $ 1.6 Billion to build Venice. Now in the back waters of the Southern Indian State has 100 miles of back waters criss crossing across the heart of the State. Now what would it cost to build that infrastructure. The cost of building the Jungles of India, the Palaces of Rajasthan and other historical and natural attractions could be worth billion of dollars. Finally the intangible of a civilization ethos, the colors, food, artistic traditions, wildlife, diversity, textile fabrics, historical monuments are the key reasons why people travel to India or any other country. With a 3000 year history, there are intangible cultural software applications that have value.

So when one analyses travel infrastructure, the term infrastructure needs to encompass a broader perspective of the term infrastructure to include regulatory frameworks, deregulatory environment and also the value of the destination itself. The value of the destination can be assessed by the attractions, the civilization heritage, the cultural dimension, natural wealth, lifestyles, activities, religious and aesthetic traditions.