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| 'Mumbai terror incident, meltdown hits foreign tourist inflow' |
| Press Trust of India / Chandigarh Jun 29, 2009, 17:07 IST |
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Tourist arrivals in India have picked up after a decline of about 10.6-17.6 per cent in the first three months of 2009 as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said here today.
"There had been some effect after the Mumbai terror incident and in the wake of global economic meltdown. However, things are looking better now. Foreign tourist arrivals have again started to pick up, with 2,95,124 of them visiting India in the month of May, which reduced the shortfall to just 1.9 per cent in comparison with tourist arrivals in May last year," Selja said addressing a press conference here.
She said the government was also laying lot of stress on giving a boost to domestic tourism, which was the backbone of the Indian tourism sector and added her ministry was planning to hold roadshows later this year at various places in the country to promote domestic tourism.
On the next year's Commonwealth Games, Selja said there was a requirement of an estimated 40,000 rooms and added things were moving on track to meet the demand.
"Out of the total requirement, about 11,000 additional rooms will be made available in Delhi and adjoining NCR areas of Haryana and UP. Further, various category of flats of the Delhi Development Authority, including those in Jasola and Vasant Kunj are being converted into 5,500 rooms of 3-star category to be used for CWG-2010 visitors," she said.
Selja said that the ITDC will be furnishing the flats which would be provided by the DDA.
Government-run hotels in the capital, including Ashoka, Samrat and Janpath, were encouraging the bed and breakfast scheme while budget hotels in collaboration with the private sector would be made available to the visitors, she said.
Selja said that the government had sought about 6,000 rooms from Haryana and so far they had covered the target of making over 5,500 rooms available for games. However, UP was falling somewhat short at the moment, she said.
To a question, the minister ruled out any shortfall in rooms for the event and said she had last week met Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi and told him that IOA need not worry on account of accommodation for visitors.
She said the approved guest houses in Delhi would provide around 11,000 rooms for the tourists and 3,000 rooms would be made available through the bed and breakfast/home stay scheme.
The ministry was looking to market other tourist destinations which visitors could visit, Selja said, adding it will also provide hospitality trained volunteers, while over 3,500 tourist taxi and coach drivers working in the NCR region were being trained to become tourist-friendly as part of the preparations for the sporting event.
On security, she said, "This is something we are taking very seriously. We want to assure that security will be tight."
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