Working of overseas tourism offices not up to mark: Committee

A Parliamentary Committee has found that the functioning of overseas tourism offices leaves "much to be desired" due to reasons which include the posting of officials who have no experience in the promotion of tourism abroad.
The committee has also found that the Tourism Ministry failed to utilise the fund allocated for overseas campaigns as it could spend only Rs 150 crore out of the total funds of Rs 267 crore.
There are 14 overseas India Tourism Offices, out of which the posts of heads of four offices are vacant and another four are being led by deputationists.
"The committee is at a loss to see that working of our tourism offices abroad leave much to be desired," said a report of the Standing Committee on Tourism headed by CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury.

The report tabled in Parliament today has also found that some overseas offices are headed or manned by persons having no experience in the relevant area.
"How can a person with no experience be allowed to head our offices abroad?" the committee asked in its report.

The 31-member committee failed to understand the logic behind this and said it was not surprised as to why the allocation for overseas campaigns was not being utilised properly.
It has recommended reconsidering the policy regarding postings abroad and including an element of experience in the relevant area in the guidelines. It also suggested DoPT rules for deputation be strictly applied in the case of tourism promotion offices abroad.

On the visa policy, Yechury said this was defective as it created a bottleneck in attracting tourists, particularly in the Buddhist circuit.
The committee observed that one of the major challenges of tourism sector today was the absence of a uniform and rational road transport tax structure in states and multiplicity of taxes at inter-state borders.
"This is acting as an impediment in seamless movement of tourist vehicles across state borders," it stated and recommended that tourist vehicles with all-India permit be taxed uniformly so that difficulties are not faced by tourists in crossing state borders.