Inter-Ministerial Council On Tourism Proposed

In a bid to promote tourism in the country, the government has proposed to constitute an inter-ministerial council to work out a strategy for better coordination among the various infrastructure departments, tourism secretary M P Bezbarua said here on Tuesday.

The council, consisting of representatives from core infrastructural ministries and experts from the tourism trade and travel industry, will suggest a plan to augment tourism infrastructure to achieve the target of 3.25 million foreign tourists by the year 2000, Bezbarua said during the opening of the two-day Overseas Marketing Meet on Tourism..

A Tourism Development Board would be set up very soon to help in coordination between the industry and trade for this purpose, Bezbarua said.

 

Highlighting the tourism potential in the area of foreign exchange and employment generation, Bezbarua said the government is working on a strategy to achieve at least a moderate growth of about 8 per cent over the next few years. The opening of new tourist offices in Korea and Latin America is also being consideration.

Focussed marketing plans are being evolved for various potential pockets to attract more tourists to India. Besides, an action plan to check a sudden fall of tourist arrivals during natural calamities is also being considered, he said.

Addressing the meet, tourism director general Ashok Pradhan said that a growth of 13.5 per cent was registered in the arrival of American tourists during 1996, while the rate of growth of out-bound traffic from the United States has been only 6.9 per cent during the period.

Pradhan said arrivals from the UK saw a growth of 7.7 per cent, Australia 30.3 per cent, Belgium 18.3 per cent, Finland 50.6 per cent and Switzerland 28.9 per cent. Tourist arrivals from Korea and Japan too registered an impressive growth.

To further this growth, every tourist office abroad will launch a special campaign to mark Indias 50th year of Independence.