| |
Tourists fighting shy of Buddhist circuit in UP
Rakesh Sood
VARANASI, January 24: Tourists from the Middle East, America and south-east Asian countries are giving this holy city the go-by due to the paucity of five-star hotel facilities and the poor infrastructure. Even rail and air tickets are not freely available causing a phenomenal decline in the number of tourists on the Buddhist circuit in the state. "Since the advent of the festival season in October, the region has lost business worth millions of dollars. Lack of direct access to the city and the shortage of suitable accommodation has forced tourists to overfly to other destinations like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, reducing the foreign exchange earnings during the peak season to seven per cent," the deputy chairman of the Clarks group of hotels, Upendra Gupta, told The Financial Express."If the existing Babatpur airport here is upgraded to an international airport, and a weekly flight to south-east Asian nations is introduced, tourist traffic from countries
like Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Sri Lanka, which have large Buddhist populations, would increase substantially," Gupta said. This would also cater to the needs of business travellers from the Middle East and vice versa, he said. The city, which figures prominently on the Buddhist circuit, could ideally be used to boost Buddhist tourism to the state, unfortunately a lackluster approach by the administration has led the city to rack an ruin, lamented Gupta. He suggested that the upper limit of expenditure tax be raised from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,750 for single rooms and from Rs 2,400 to Rs 3,000 for double rooms. This would increase future investment in the development of tourism infrastructure, he said. "Tour operators who are already reeling under high tariffs, hefty increase in luxury tax and imposition of service tax, find themselves faced with an acute shortage of 10,000 rooms in Delhi alone, which leads to 102 per cent occupancy during the festive season. This has compelled several of them
to shift their bases to satellite towns," said Gupta. Tourists are being forced to choose alternative destinations like Kathmandu, Singapore and Pakistan, he said, adding that the UP government should make available land for hotels on long leases and easy terms in NOIDA and Sarnath. Gupta also suggested that the railway ministry introduce a superfast train between Agra and Varanasi. This would make Sarnath accessible to a large number of tourists on the Agra-Khajuraho-Kathmandu circuit, he said. Besides these problems, even the condition of the roads and bridges, particularly in the Varanasi-Bodh Gaya sector are in a shambles. The road between Kushinagar and Vaihsali is extremely unsafe, and this keeps off the business travellers, depriving the state of precious foreign exchange, said Gupta. Currently, 2.2 million tourists visit India annually. The country can comfortably absorb more if the government allows more private participation in building hotels and infrastructure, said Gupta.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
|
 |
