class 12...craft in the age of tourism 105 with cameras being so sophisticated, easy-to-use and...

TOURISM, if it is managed sensitively, can be a miraculouscatalyst for economic and cultural revitalisation; it notonly enhances income but also establishes an identityof the country. Two Asian countries—Thailand andIndia—are among the top ten destinations in the world,and tourists to India increase by almost 15 per centeach year.

The nature of tourism itself has changed—withtourists travelling for leisure and pleasure, rather thanculture and architecture. This new type of traveller isoften looking to buy ethnic crafts or souvenirs as amemento of their travel experience. Which crafts dovisitors to India buy? Where do they buy them from?These are some of the questions to explore.

India has over twenty million craftspeople, who createa very wide range of varied crafts. Is it possible toproductively use the ever-growing tourism industry toexplore approaches to craft merchandising that willbenefit and sustain the crafts community throughoutthe country? Let us analyse present trends in craftsproduction and sale in the tourism sector.

CRAFT IN THE AGE OF TOURISM8

Popular Souvenirs from India

Carpets and durries Kundan, silver and semi-precious jewellery Block-printed fabric Embroideries Folk art—Madhubani paintings, Bastar metal work Silk—material, garments, scarves and stoles Embossed and embroidered leather Pashmina shawls from Kashmir which continue to be the

most popular

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m

CRAFT TRADITIONS OF INDIA: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE104

The market for crafts in the tourism sector is basedon certain factors which it is important to understandand analyse in order to develop the market potential forcrafts. A similar approach can be used to analyse othermarketing options for crafts.

TOURISTS’ PREFERENCES

Air travel implies limited bulk and weight of luggagefor travellers. So they prefer to carry small, lightobjects. Since weight is a major problem, the thingsthat tourists buy have to be either unusual, orsomething that they don’t get in their own countryor so competitive in price that they find themirresistible.

Today popular destinations in India are Goa andKerala where visitors flock for the beaches andayurvedic spas. Tourists also come to see monumentssearching for a unique cultural experience likevis it ing the magnificent forts and palaces o fRajasthan. It is important to realise that trends,fashions, tastes and lifestyles change. This, in turn,affects the tourism and crafts industry.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m

105CRAFT IN THE AGE OF TOURISM

With cameras being so sophisticated, easy-to-use andinexpensive, tourists no longer need souvenirs justto put into showcases at home as reminders of theirtravels.

International travel today is quite commonplacerather than a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Touriststoday are exposed to the best the world can offer,and are therefore more select ive. The Indianexperience shows that the traveller today—even back-packers—do have money to spend, but since theytravel the globe, they are quite selective about whatthey spend their money on.

Tourists these days are younger; they are usuallyprofessionals on holiday, rather than just the retiredand the elderly. Their homes are smaller; usuallycolour-coordinated and designed to a theme. Justbecause something is ethnic it is not always desiredby them. However, sometimes, simply changing acolour or size can make a traditional item into abest-seller.

Some years ago, weavers from Varanasi converted the traditional dupatta into a stole, alength of cloth worn like a small shawl by women in Western countries. This new productbecame very popular and sold well at tourist centres as it was light, the right size andcomfortable to wear with western clothes.

Today’s travellers do not want things that are difficultto maintain, which require frequent washing andpolishing. Hence, there was a sharp decline in recentyears in the demand for Indian metal crafts like bidri,silver and brassware.

An English lady wanted to buy a white chikan tablecloth—but the thought of handlaundering, starching and ironing its fragile, heavily embroidered muslin folds worriedher. Finally, she had a brainwave. “I’ll buy it for my mother-in-law,” she said. “She will likethe tablecloth and my good taste, but she will have the headache of looking after it for therest of her life!”

On the other hand tourists and travellers do buyclothes and accessories for holidays—casuals, sandals,cloth bags, jewellery. These items are usually cheaperin India than in Europe and America. Tourists todayare much less conservative and enjoy experimenting

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


with local styles. Holiday clothes and accessories are,therefore, areas that could be developed.

Visitors would prefer to invest in and to take hometruly beautiful artistic objects. This area of artistic,high-quality products needs to be developed ratherthan trying to sell poorly designed, cheap, outdatedsouvenirs of the past.

POPULAR SALES OUTLETS FOR CRAFTS

Most tourists visit the Taj Mahal, one of the mostbeautiful monuments in the world. However, this worldfamous heritage site is surrounded by hundreds of littleshops and stalls full of cheap alabaster and ugly plasticreplicas of the Taj, rows and rows of small soap-stonepill boxes with poor quality marble inlay and lids thatdon’t fit. The shops are run by aggressive and persistentshopkeepers and there is not a craftsperson or genuinecraft object in sight. The same is true of all our greattourist sites, museums and pilgrimage centres—the RedFort, Khajuraho, Ajanta, Varanasi, Hampi, Mathura,Mahabalipuram and the beaches of Goa and Orissa.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


There are government-run Cottage Industries andState Handicraft Emporia in all the cities. Baba KharakSingh Marg in Delhi has a row of crafts emporia run bythe State Handicrafts Corporations’ shops. Theseemporia were an innovation as India was probably thefirst country with a policy and a Ministry for Handloomsand Handicrafts.

A comparatively new trend is privately run shops incities, hotels and airports. Commercial tourist complexesmarket a mix of ethnic food, rural lifestyle, craft, musicand dance such as Vishaala in Gujarat, Swabhumi inKolkata, Chowki Dhani in Jaipur. The craftsperson isfeatured as both exhibit and entertainer.

In order to enter the field of handicraft marketing onehas to know where and how the products are made,appreciate the craftsmen’s lifestyle and method of working.Thereafter, reliable supply contacts or procurementarrangements should be established, as well as efficientdistribution outlets, and the whole enterprise managed

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


in a business-like way. In the selection process, goodtaste and visual discrimination are valuable assets,besides a general understanding of crafts. Working outrealistic cost prices with a reasonable mark-up for retailand wholesale prices are among the basic steps for propermarketing.

NEW AVENUES FOR CRAFTS DEVELOPMENT

Crafts, in tourism, does not just mean selling things totourists. It could also mean crafting the spaces thattourists use such as the hote ls , guest houses,restaurants and scenic spots. Crafts of all kinds—architectural, functional, decorative, can be used toenhance and accent these places. This way local craftskills can be promoted and sustained in the long term.

Devigarh, Neemrana, Samode and other l istedHeritage Hotels in Rajasthan and elsewhere have nohotel arcades, no stereotyped craft souvenirs but everyroom, surface, and object in the hotel has beenhandcrafted in the best traditional techniques and withthe best contemporary designs.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


Museums are a wonderful venue for sellingquality crafts to a discerning audience. Thefew museums that have shops only have asmall set of badly produced postcards andsome dusty plaster casts.

Airport shops are another significant venueto capture customers for local handicrafts.As this is the last impression visitors have ofIndia before they return home it is importantthat airport shops help them to forge a lastingand endearing image of our country.

Dilli Haat, the government crafts bazaar inthe centre of Delhi, is now being replicated allover India. It is a wonderful opportunity forcraftspeople to become aware of consumertastes and trends, and for urban middle-classconsumers to learn about the huge range ofregional craft skills, materials and techniques.This type of crafts bazaar brings craftspeoplefrom all over India, allows them to sell theirown products; the programme of craftschanges every fortnight so as to be interestingall the year round, bringing fresh products tonew audiences in the city.

Natural and cultural heritage sites canbecome a catalyst and an inspiration forchange. It is possible that such places canbecome craft production centres wherewonderful new crafts by craftspeople anddesigners are developed, inspired by the historical site.There has been some work done in this direction inMahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and Konark in Orissawhere skilled young craftspeople train, and producewonderful new pieces inspired by the monuments.Organised craft fairs, and craft demonstrations in localhotels also link tourism to local traditions withoutexplo itat ion. Tourists can contribute to craftdevelopment and social development initiatives at suchtourist centres. Eco-tourism must be an enhancingexperience for the community, not only for the tourist.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


HOW CRAFTS DECLINED WITH TOURISM

Kashmir is a State whose entire economy was based ontourism and craft. For well over a century it was themost important tourist destination—for Indian as wellas foreign tourists. Almost every family in the KashmirValley was in the handicrafts business in some way,either making or selling crafts—carpets, shawls, creweland kani embroidery, jewellery, papier-mâché, andcarved walnut wood, silver and beaten copper items.

The tourist market was so large and constant thatno attempt was made to sustain the local market oradapt the crafts to local consumer needs and budgets.Over the past two centuries, crafts originally designedfor local consumption, like the ornamentally carvedKashmiri ceilings made of walunt wood, and thetraditional pherans and shawls worn by Kashmiris withheavy embroidery were gradually reduced to souvenirsand gift items aimed at the tourist trade.

Two decades of conflict have made Kashmir adangerous area for tourists. Foreign tourists no longertravel in large numbers to Kashmir, and its craftspeoplehave been deeply affected and the whole economy,dependent on tourism, has suffered enormously.

A classic example is papier mâché originally developed to make light, decorative furnitureand home accessories for ordinary homes in Kashmir. The papier mâché art was used tomake simple products for the tourist market such as pill and powder boxes, coasters andnapkin rings, and Christmas tree decorations, embellished with western motifs of cats,bells and snowflakes.

In Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, hundreds of villagers were displaced by the creation of theTiger Reserve. Tourists, frustrated by the lack of entertainment in between visits to theWild Life Park, used to go off in their jeeps to the villages with their cameras, disruptingthe villagers’ daily routines and often offending them with their holiday clothes. Traditionalrural hospitality rapidly turned into reverse exploitation: children began begging forpresents, villagers started asking tourists for money when they were photographed. ACraft Centre outside the Tiger Reserve was set up employing hundreds of local rural women.The Centre developed crafts for the tourist market around locally available traditionalmaterials. The Centre attracted tourists who could come there, interact with craftspeople,see, understand and buy crafts in a natural yet regulated environment.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


So linked were these crafts with tourism and thebeauty of the Valley that the same products marketedoutside this troubled state, by displaced Kashmiricraftspeople in hotel arcades, footpaths and markets inother states, just did not sell as well.

A strategy to revitalise and find new consumers andusages for Kashmiri crafts is urgently required. It is awarning that no craft should become too dependent onany one market—particularly international tourism.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


CRAFTS AND SURVIVAL

In contrast, Kutch in Gujarat is an example ofhow crafts have repeatedly been an instrumentof dynamic economic survival and revival.

In Kutch as in Kashmir, almost everyone is acraftsperson. Products made here range fromeveryday terracotta objects to fabulous jewelleryand embroideries. Formerly this craft was a wayof life, made for household embellishment in poorrural communities. It was the terrible six-yeardrought in the 1980s that made people realisethe potential of the skills they possessed. In anotherwise drought-prone desert environment withlittle to attract visitors, Kutch used its rich craftheritage to generate tourism. Today, everyhousehold is dependent in some way on theproduction and sale of craft. Apart from sale of

products, specialised craft tours are organised to caterto visitors’ interests in vegetable dye, block-printing orembroidery techniques.

When, in 2001, Kutch was struck by a devastatingearthquake an estimated 80,000 people lost their lives,and over 2,28,000 artisans were severely affected bythe quake, losing their families, their homes, and theirlivelihoods.

Once again crafts came to the rescue. Craftspeople,without insurance, pensions, provident funds, were,ironically, the first to recover from the trauma of theearthquake, thanks to their inherent skills. Theirbuyers, international tour operators and even studentsand back-packers, came loyally to their rescue, sendingin not just orders, but funds for earthquake relief,reconstruction, craft development projects, and help inmany ways. Today the crafts communities of Kutch havere-established their crafts and their markets.

One tourist, hearing of the earthquake and remembering the crafts and creativity of thecommunity and the colours of her visits to Kutch, sent a crate full of scissors and needlesfor distribution!

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


NEW TRENDS IN CRAFT DEVELOPMENT

India is a fast-growing economy and needs to find aprominent place for its crafts in the global market. Inthis process of economic development the craftscommunities need to be involved in finding new andinnovative ways to help their craft to survive, as theyare creative people with many ideas and have adaptedto many changes over the years.

Catering for a Variety of Tastes: Tourism does notimply just European and American tourists. More andmore Asians of all levels of society are travelling bothwithin their own country and to neighbouring nations—generating new markets and new consumers.

Promoting Cultural Values: Craft development shouldbe a means to promote cultural wisdom and familyvalues. Showing respect to crafts communities shouldalso be a part of our concerns. It is important to bringthem and their needs into the consultative process whenplanning craft promotion.

Organic and Sustainable: Today the world is threatenedby global warming, pollution, unhealthy living conditionsand destruction of the environment. Conscientioustourists have now begun to ask if products have beengrown organically, and whether the crafts process andproduction are sustainable interms of the environment.

There are many crafts thatare not based on soundenvironmental principles. Craftsproduction is in itself not alwayseco-friendly. Dyes and mordantspollute rivers; wood-based skillsdenude our forests . Leathertanning is accompanied bynoxious smells and chemicals.Metal crafts and glass smeltingare practised in appall inglyhazardous and life-threateningsurroundings.

113

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


There are items like ivory and sandalwood whose saleis restricted, protected animal skins and parts the saleof which is completely banned. Tourists, both foreignand domestic, must be informed why these productsare not for sale and of the national effort to save India’swildlife and forests.

When encouraging and promoting crafts, attemptshould be made to improve the working environment ofcraftspeople and to find new, innovative ways to protectnatural resources, farm renewable resources like treesand bamboo, reduce pollution, and the exploitation ofnature. Crafts that follow sustainable practice, that areorganic and that do not exploit human beings shouldbe clearly marked and labelled so that the growingconscientious market is well served by the Indian craftsindustry.

Natural and Handmade: Today, ‘handloom’, ‘handmade’,‘natural dyed’, ‘natural fibres’ are the Asian equivalentsof designer labels. This is what India is especially famousfor and for this we need to protect our reputation andnever sell something as natural dyed or 100 per centpure cotton if it is not.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


Transport and Monetary Transactions: Traditionalsandalwood carvings, miniature paintings andmetalware are no longer as popular as before.Handcrafted furniture and furnishings, however,because they are so much cheaper than in the West,are a new growth area. When tourists see a long-term investment, they are ready to have theirpurchases shipped. It is important to be aware of thetransport facilities available, licenses, duties, andimport and export restrictions. The use of the creditcard also means that tourists are no longer restrictedby foreign exchange regulations or traveller’s chequesor bank balance.

Design is an aspect of craft that is often ignored andnot invested in. Craft has always been changing andre-inventing itself, and it must respond to the shiftsin society and lifestyles. If it remains static, itgradually withers away and dies. Sadly, however,though craftspeople in India sti ll do the mostincredible carving, embroidery, metal work, and inlaywork in a host of different regional traditions andmaterials, product design has not kept pace withcontemporary trends and styling.

Brand India: We Can Learn from Swiss Watches

Each nation has a unique brand identity, with its core values and essence diffusing throughthe population, who in turn reinforces and spreads these values and cultural nuances ina gigantic circle of brand building. No two nations are exactly the same, for a nation’sidentity comes from its languages, music, art, style, customs and religions.

Most successful watch brands derive their brand equity from being Swiss-made.Japanese products are associated with quality and innovation. Negative associations alsotransfer. Chinese branded products, top quality or not, are generally not perceived assuch.

At present India’s image is somewhat fragmented, ranging from cultural associationsbuilt by the ‘Incredible India’ tourism campaign, to a global fascination with the vibrancyof ‘Bollywood’, from the widespread poverty highlighted in the film Slumdog Millionaire, tothe business perception of India as the world’s back office. India needs to define its corevalues and national identities clearly, and purposefully build greater natural brand equityand value.

– Extracted from an article in The Times of India, 21 June 2009,by PAUL TEMPORAL, Visiting Fellow at Said Business

School, University of Oxford

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have beenmuch more innovative and clever in adapting theirtraditional skills to crafts products that are bothpicturesquely Asian yet contemporary.

Presentation and Packaging is one of the weakestareas in the Indian crafts chain. Even products aimedspecifically at tourists do not have travel-proof carrierbags or packing material. This is particularly sadwhen there are so many natural materials whichlend themselves so appropriately for packaging.Similarly, despite our Asian aesthetic sense andwarmth, shop display and customer service in touristcentres are generally unattractive.

Well-designed information posters and labellingalso help to sell products. The buyer must know andbe informed which products are hand-woven, madeof natural fibres, part of a historic cultural tradition,or made by tribal women. This information is asvaluable as the product for today’s eco-mindedtraveller.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m


EXCERCISE

1. Choose a craft for which your state is famous and describehow you could develop this craft for the tourism sector. Whydo you think it would be popular amongst tourists? Wherewould you market it? How would you package it?

2. Prepare the text and illustrations for a brochure on a craft—explaining its unique qualities, its sustainable properties andthe community that made it, keeping in mind its value as apart of new trends and concerns of contemporary life.

3. Draw from the story of Kashmir that was over-dependent onforeign tourists and did not develop a domestic market, andrelate it to how any craft in your area has been seriouslyaffected and the reasons for this.

4. Find three new venues for the sale of crafts in your area.Identify places that you think would attract both domesticand foreign visitors and explain why.

5. “Tourists today do not travel to see ancient monuments. Theytravel seeking leisure and fun. Taking home mementos orcurios is no longer high on their agenda.” Do you agree?Elaborate.

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m

www.stud

iestod

ay.co

m

class 12...craft in the age of tourism 105 with cameras being so sophisticated, easy-to-use and...

Documents