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Tourism Ministry to spend Rs 25 cr on
destination and circuit tourism

       New Delhi: The Tourism Ministrty will invest Rs 25 crore for destination and Rs 50 cr for circuit, to take forward the `Destination and Circuit' tourism scheme. Tourism Secretary A.K. Misra announced this at a summit on 'The Business of Tourism - An Industry of Industries' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday. "The tourism industry boomed with a quantum growth of 65 percent in foreign arrivals and led to 96 percent dollar generation between 2002 and 2005," said Mr Misra. "The industry aims at a 10 to 15 percent growth in the near future." Misra was presented with a five-point task force report prepared by the CII today that deals with issues like environmental challenges in tourism; heritage tourism; infrastructure status; budget tourism; and training. "The stock of Indian tourism is very high for investors," said Mr Misra. "We have been moving with the Ministry of Finance to declare three star hotels as infrastructure projects." The drive for the development of the tourism sector is being met in partnership with the Ministry of Railways, Delhi Development Authority, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Defense and other state governments. The Tourism Ministry, along with the Planning Commission, has decided to go for the Land Bank Scheme, said Mr. Misra. "The issue of clearances on land needs to be addressed. Adoption of the single window approach along with certain clearance mechanisms will help meet the requirements for additional hotel rooms by 2010."

       Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Amitabh Kant said that the industry witnessed a growth of 62 percent in value terms. The deficiency in managing civic services, pilgrimage sites, monuments, etc is an important consideration. "It is not always a function of investment but also of management," said Misra. The Ministry has also decided to set up toilets at various petrol pumps to put a stop to the inconvenience faced by tourists. According to the Secretary, the ministry will have four thrust areas - medical tourism, education tourism, rural tourism and the convention sector. President, IATO, Subhash Goyal, said that although investors have shown a lot of interest in the sector, the infrastructure in India is not ready for the boom. Goyal said that tourism could help in poverty eradication as the industry offers a new job every 2.5 seconds. Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism, S S H Rehman said that there was a greater need today of rationalization of taxation policy and land and building laws.
-Nov 14,  2006

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