Indian Institutes of Management are developing training programs for tourist guides. This initiative aims to enhance the skills of 10,000 guides across 20 tourist sites. The courses will blend management principles with local culture. IIM Nagpur is focusing on forest conservation and tiger safaris. IIM Indore will upskill the tourism workforce in Madhya Pradesh.
Taking a cue from the budget, the Indian Institutes of Management are preparing courses to upskill tourist guides and bolster the government's aim of unlocking the full potential of the tourism industry. In her budget speech this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 guides at 20 iconic tourist sites through a standardised, high-quality 12-week training course delivered in a hybrid format in collaboration with IIMs.
"We are fully committed to this national mandate of introducing a visionary pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 guides across 20 iconic tourist sites," said Bhimaraya Metri, director of IIM Nagpur. Currently, IIM Nagapur provides upskilling courses, including executive education and specialised training programmes. "Leveraging this expertise, we will work on developing a tourism-specific curriculum that blends world-class management principles with local cultural insights," said Metri.
The institute is developing a curriculum centred around forest conservation and tiger safaris. "We will use this vast experience in rural and administrative training ot create a specialised ecosystem for tourism skilling, ensuring that the benefits of the Tiegr Caaopitla reach every local guide and hospitality provider," he added. IIM Nagpur has also launched a specialised hospital management course aligning with the budget's emphasis on Medical Value Tourism.
Separately, IIM Indore is planning to upskill the tourism workforce in Madhya Pradesh through executive training programmes, said director Himanshu Rai. The institute has academic capability in tourism-related areas, including a tourism marketing course in the PGP programme, he said.
Executive Modules
IIM Indore has faculty with experience in services, destination marketing, sustainability, and public-sector training, Rai said. In addition, IIM Indore is engaging its faculty in tourism research, marketing, and advisory roles. "The faculty regulates designs, customised programmes and consultancy assignments for government departments and public sector organisations," according to Rai. In the coming months, IIM Indore will help conceptualise and develop a gender sensitive corridor.
Raid said it will include frameworks for women-centric service delivery, safety, accessibility, and coordination across tourism touchpoints. "The institute will support the design of training modules and advisory inputs for gender sensitive coordinations, particularly for large-scale events such as the Mahakumbh."
Most IIMs are looking at upskilling through executive modules, case-based learning, field immersion, and applied projects. "We contribute primarily through management education that builds cross-functional capabilities relevant to tourism businesses and entrepreneurship programmes," said Sanjeev Prashar, director in charge at IIM Raipur. Debashish Chatterjee, Director of IIM Kozhikode, finds the budget's emphasis on strengthening India's tourism workforce both timely and strategic. In the future, the institute will actively participate in shaping high-quality, industry-relevant curricula to upskill the tourism workforce, said Chatterjee. A key enabler of this effort is the institute's upcoming MOOC infrastructure and content development centre.
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