Tamil Nadu seeks Rs 250 cr from Centre to revive tourism industry

: Tamil Nadu on Friday requested the

Centre to allocate Rs 250 crore as special grant for revival of the tourism sector in the state which has felt the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

State Tourism Minister 'Vellamandi' N Natarajan, during his interaction with Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel through video conference sought the fund.

Tamil Nadu is one of the worst affected states due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All tourism players are badly affected due to resource crunch and deprival of livelihood opportunities, an official press release here said.

"The Minister requested the Tourism Ministry to allocate a special financial grant of Rs 250 crore to Tamil Nadu, which may be used to fund innovative strategies for the revival of the industry in the state," the release said.

During the interaction, he suggested that the Tourism Ministry may introduce a scheme - 'Let's Travel' by providing 50 per cent subsidy on air, rail or road travel and accommodation and food to trigger demand and consumer spending in the hospitality and travel sector.

"The Central government may also review the LTC cash voucher scheme announced recently for the Central government employees as it is likely to affect the hospitality and tourism sector by diverting funds away from it", the release said.

The Minister also referred the initial project reports submitted by the state government to the Centre seeking Rs 563.50 crore for development of Mamallapuram following the historic meet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.

Natarajan said the new tourist schemes like rural tourism, adventure tourism, cruise tourism and water sports may be considered through adequate support from the Ministry for promoting domestic tourism, the release said.