COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

High-level panel to be formed to develop tourism as export industry

The Centre has decided to develop tourism in the country by providing all basic facilities to foreign tourists, in a bid to earn more foreign exchange.

Union Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana said in Gorakhpur on Friday evening that India earned Rs 135 billion in foreign exchange from tourists last year.

He said Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and he met earlier in the week to chalk out the modalities and set up a four-member committee of secretaries to prepare a detailed plan to develop tourism as an "export industry".

The committee, to be headed by the tourism secretary and comprising the secretaries for finance, revenue, and commerce, will prepare a plan that will be implemented by the government in phases.

The government has also decided to observe 'Visit India Year' from April 1,1999 to March 31, 2000.

Foreigners and non-resident Indians who visit the country in this period will get special concessions in railway and airline fares and in hotels.

Foreign tourists often do not get enough information and are sometimes conned by touts. So the government has decided to build a 'Paryatan (Tourism) Bhavan' in Connaught Place, New Delhi, in an area of 2.5 acres, Khurana said.

Tourism offices of all 26 states of the Union will be accommodated under one roof in this facility to help tourists who will be brought directly from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. All information will be given free. Air and rail reservations will also be made for them.

The minister said there are hundreds of religious and historical spots of tourist interest in the country, but their surroundings are very bad. So the Centre has asked state governments to identify 50 sites of tourist attraction. It will then give Rs 10 million and the states will have to make a matching contribution to improve the surroundings of all those sites.

The Centre will release Rs 5 million to each state this year to get the plan started.

Khurana also said all the Buddhist tourist spots in the north will be linked by rail for easy, comfortable access.

UNI