Dec 1: The three-day India Economic Summit, which ended here on Tuesday, charted out a five-point action plan to give boost to tourism industry and urged the government to consider the sector as a priority area for economic growth.At the travel and tourism session, the president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, Geoffrey Lipman said a strong political will and concerted effort from the private sector was needed to tap India's immense tourism potential.
``As we look to a 21st century of services-led economic growth, the travel trade is emerging as one of the world's highest growth sectors. But it requires liberal markets with competitive edge, good infrastructure, easy visa norms, conducive investment environment and rationalised tax regime coupled with top quality service,'' Lipman said.
The five-point charter calls for:-
Comprehensive national and state level strategies recognising the economic importance of tourism industry. Strong and sustained policy implementation driven fromthe top. Open sky policies both on domestic as well as International fronts. Large scale investment in infrastructure especially in airports with attractive incentives to bring in private parties and foreign direct investment. A fiscal regime conducive to export and investment in human resource development programmes through active participation from private sector.``Within the overall security parameters in the country, the government plans to liberalise the visa norms to give boost to the industry. The government also plans to issue special cards to non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin to visit India.'' the additional director general, tourism department M.K.Khanna said.
Participating in the session, the vice-chairman and the managing director of the Oberoi Group, PRS Oberoi reiterated the need for action to back up words,`` The government's recently announced draft tourism policy is first step towards the full realisation of tourism potential in the country, ``we havefailed historically to take our rightful place as a major tourism destination despite our rich culture, history and immense beauty of our country'', Oberoi said.
The president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, Subhash Goyal said, `` we need to implement the new tourism policy immediately with particular focus given to competitive air access and improvement to infrastructure and visitor services to satisfy a huge pent-up regional and international demand''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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