Tourism created 14 million jobs in last four years, claims K J Alphons

Union tourism minister KJ Alphons Thursday claimed that the tourism sector alone created around 14 million jobs during the past four years.

The country has climbed from seventh slot in 2017 to the third rank in 2018 in the world travel & tourism council's power and performance index, he told the second meeting of the reconstituted National Tourism Advisory Council here.

Without offering more details like state-wise or anuual break-ups, he said, "employing all sections of the society, the tourism sector alone has created nearly 14 million jobs across the country in the last four years alone".

It can be noted that BJP rode to power in the 2014 polls promising 10 million new jobs every year but the latest official data, whcih was junked by the government later, showed that unemployment rate touched a 47 year high in 2018.

Private think tank CMIE also said as many as 13 million jobs were lost in 2018 alone, as an aftereffect of the note ban and hasty GST rollout, leaving lots of red faces in the government.

Alphons expressed his hope that the country "will achieve a better growth through tourism with the fast developing infrastructure and connectivity" as per an official PIB release.