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Government mulls sprucing up 50 cities and export house status for tourism sector

Union Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana says 50 cities in the country have been identified to develop or improve infrastructure facilities like roads to attract international tourists.

He told newsmen in Hyderabad on Saturday that the cities where infrastructure would be developed included Agra, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanyakumari and Rameswaram. The programme would be undertaken in collaboration with state governments, who would be given financial assistance in this regard.

Citing an example, Khurana said though a lot of foreign tourists come to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal, quite a few of them go back disappointed because of lack of proper facilities like good roads and hotel accommodation in and around Agra.

He said the tourism and commerce ministries had, in principle, agreed to accord export house status to tourism industry. Details were being worked out in consultation with the finance ministry and a final shape would be given during the next 15 days.

Khurana said an action plan to achieve the objectives of the new tourism policy has been formulated, which treated tourism, among other things, as a unifying force for better understanding to bring national integration.

The policy envisages providing employment opportunities to the youth, besides ensuring balanced development of backward and weaker sections of the society and as a tool for faster economic growth.

Khurana said the new policy also considered tourism as a force for the preservation and enrichment of India's culture and heritage which include monuments, various art forms, handicrafts, folk dances, traditional fairs and festivals and cuisines.

He said a short-term plan has been drawn to implement the new tourism policy which included restructuring of Board of Tourism Industry and Trade, construction of Paryatan Bhavan in Delhi and Visit India Year 1999-2000.

President K R Narayanan will lay the foundation stone for the bhavan in January next. The government had already allocated 2.5 acres of land in Delhi for the bhavan where all the information needed by the tourists would be provided. The state governments would be asked to open their tourism offices in the bhavan, he added.

Khurana said he would take up with the Planning Commission, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu's proposal for setting up a travel and hotel management training institute in Hyderabad.

He said the number of tourists visiting Kashmir which fell to three digits in the recent past due to insurgency was gradually increasing. About 40,000 tourists had visited the Kashmir valley during the current year so far, and shooting of films showed that the government had succeeded in creating confidence in the minds of the people.

UNI