Union minister for culture and tourism, Government of India (fourth from right) with dignitaries at the launch of the 54th annual conference of Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India in Goa.Inaugurating the 54th annual convention of the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, union minister for culture and tourism, Government of India has said that the “lust of Indian hoteliers” for foreign tourist business has come down drastically over the last decade or so as the paying capacity of the domestic Indian tourist has proved equally good or better than international tourists.He said that because of the transformative work that the union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done in the country over the last 10 years, over 27 crore people have been uplifted from the below poverty to the middle class base and they are quite aspirational to explore country’s culture, heritage and places associated with spiritual life.“More than 100 million people visit places like Ujjain and Ayodhya alone. They are also travellers and contributing to the local tourism economies,” he said.He said that Indian tourism lacks proper data and that the union government has started working with state governments in compiling the right data about the tourism sector which will definitely go a long way in putting India on a higher pedestal on the global rankings when it comes to tourism, he said.The union minister said that he had a detailed discussion on some of the critical issues related to tourism and hospitality industry in the country like the infrastructure status as well as the GST rates with the union finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, this week and he is hopeful of positive outcomes on these matters in the coming days.As far as industry status benefits, which is a state subject, Shekhawat said that the tourism ministry has prepared a compendium of best practices in the tourism sector by various states and presented it to all the states on the world tourism day. He said that the union government will pursue this with states for uniform implementation. On the tourism infrastructure front and issues of congestion at key destinations, Shekhawat said that his ministry has invited applications for big-ticket tourism projects from states and as the deadline expired this week, the department has received 87 projects from states worth INR 8,000 crore. The scheme will be plugged into the INR 1 lakh crore interest free infrastructure loan which the union government is giving to states this year, he added.The union minister said that the tourism ministry is also working with the ministry of external affairs (MEA) in exploring visas on arrival for tourists from some of the top source markets of India.Goa chief minister, Pramod Sawant was the chief guest at the inaugural event which was also attended by the Goa tourism minister, Rohan Khaunte. Addressing the hoteliers, Sawant said that his government is committed to take Goa’s tourism beyond the beaches to the hinterland. “Our endeavour is to make Goa a model state for sustainable tourism,” he said.From the industry, Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, IHCL made a presentation. He said that no other industry which enjoys support and industry status in the country has the capacity to generate the kind of employment that tourism has and therefore the government policies should be supportive for the smooth development of tourism. Pradeep Shetty, president of FHRAI has said that the tourism and hospitality industry in the country is largely unmapped and the current statistics and figures do not give the right information about the size of the industry as the bulk of the industry is in the unorganised sector. He said that the FHRAI has started the process of mapping the industry and it will be shared with the government. A study report of Ease of Doing Business in Hospitality was released on the occasion.
Published On Oct 17, 2024 at 10:00 AM IST
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