Tourism grows 44 per cent in 2003-05, mops up $5.7 billion in 05

India was appointed chairperson of UNWTO task force to draw up a strategy for rehabilitation of tourism in the Tsunami affected areas.

India was elected to represent South Asia on the Executive Council of UNWTO, the highest policy making world tourism body represented by 150 countries.

Revival of tourism in J&K has been taken up as one of the top priorities of the government. Special package for revival of tourism in J&K has been announced. A number of projects to give a boost to tourism in J&K have been declared at a total cost of Rs279.50 crore which include setting up of 50 tourist villages, financial support to 12 tourism authorities, establishing a new tourism circuit covering – Lakhanpur-Basoli-Bani-Bhaderwah – Kishtwar-Sinthan-Srinagar. It also includes assistance to travel agents for marketing, training in tourism industry and developing skills of youths for employment and tourism industry.

In view of the huge development potential of tourism, 71 rural tourism projects have been sanctioned to spread tourism and its socio-economic benefits to identified rural sites having tourism potential. The capacity building programme has also been taken up in partnership with UNDP for 36 rural tourism sites so that the benefit of tourism reaches the community at large.

In order to meet the rising demand of accommodation due to increased growth in tourist arrivals, the department of tourism brought out guidelines for classification of 'apartment hotels', 'time share' resorts and 'guest houses'.

The department of tourism also sanctioned capital subsidy for 21 budget category hotels and interest subsidy for 160 budget category hotels during last two years. It has classified 276 hotels in different classified and re-classified 230. The department has also approved 109 hotel projects with 7,206 rooms and cleared 23 foreign technical collaboration in the hotel industry and 9 cases of foreign investments.

Initiatives have been launched to promote medical tourism in partnership with the private sector to make India a global health care destination. The accreditation norms, price banding for identified hospitals and identified specialised medical services along with a list of hospitals, which could be used for health tourism purposes have been prepared by Indian Health Care Federation, a NGO affiliated to CII. A new category of visa 'medical visa' has been introduced, which can be given for a specific purpose to foreign tourists coming to India for medical treatment. The guidelines for accreditation of Ayurveda and Panchakarma centre have also been issued for implementation, to ensure required standard of services, so that holistic health tourism could be promoted.

Cruise tourism is emerging as a fast growing sector globally with huge spin offs because it generates large-scale business in all areas of travel trade. A draft concept and policy has been drawn up to make India an attractive cruise tourism destination with state of the art infrastructural and other facilities at various ports and to achieve a target of 6 lakh cruise passenger landing per year by the end of 2010. Star cruises limited has launched its operation in India.

The norms and standards to be followed by land, air and water based adventure activities for tourism purposes have been developed.

The tourism infrastructure development projects worth Rs984.81 crore were sanctioned for 570 tourism projects in all the states for creating a world-class experience to the tourists. The scheme of promoting public private partnership for large revenue generating tourism projects has been finalised. A new scheme of viability gap funding for assisting private sector driven tourism projects has been launched.

Major thrust has been given for tourism infrastructure development in North East including Sikkim with 82 projects amounting to Rs193.71 crore sanctioned with the objective of developing it as a sustainable destination with community participation.

With a view to increase India's share in the growing business of 'meetings, incentives, conferences and events' (MICE) segment, it has been decided to support setting up of large and small convention centres with exhibition facilities at various metros and other cities. These centres will not only fetch a large amount of foreign exchange but also give boost to other economic activities.

Infrastructure upgradation of Buddhist circuits has been taken up in a big way through identification of 22 important Buddhist sites throughout the country. Government of India has sanctioned 14 projects amounting to Rs57.22 crore for development of tourism infrastructure in 12 sites. The infrastructure development has also been taken up through JBIC for Ajanta-Ellora amounting to Rs299 crore. Government has also entered into an agreement for undertaking infrastructure development at Buddhist sites of Sarnath, Kushinagar, Kapilvastu, Shravasti and Sankisa in U.P., with JBIC for a loan assistance of Rs395.63 crore for total project of Rs680 crore.

A major campaign titled "Come to India-Walk with the Buddha" was launched in the South East Asian market and in domestic market for promotion of Buddhist circuit. In addition Buddhism has also been identified for tourism development in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Srilanka through a common promotional campaign.

Atithi Devo Bhavah, a nationwide campaign aimed at sensitising key stakeholders towards tourists, through a process of training and orientation was launched. It re-instilled a sense of responsibility, towards tourists and re-enforced the confidence of foreign tourist towards India as a preferred holiday destination.

The 'incredible India' campaign was given a new dimension with the 'colours of India' and 'wellness campaign' in the global market, which made its impact through growth of 26.8 per cent in tourist arrivals and 31.5 per cent in foreign exchange earnings. This campaign also went on to win several awards internationally. In addition to the global campaign, the domestic tourist market of 367 million was targeted for the first time through a series of campaigns 'Taj 350 years', Andaman & Nicobar islands, north eastern region including Sikkim, J&K, Eastern India, Central India, Southern India, Buddhist circuit etc. A series of 'incredible India' Road shows were also organised in important overseas markets with participation of senior level delegations from India.

An amount of Rs. 17.32 crore has been released for opening up of three new institutes of hotel management, one each in Haryana, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. It has also been decided to open a new institute of hotel management in Chhattisgarh. In addition, funds amounting to Rs37.00 crore were also sanctioned for upgradation of building, construction of new campuses and procurement of modern training aids for 20 institutes in the country. The capacity building schemes for Service providers was launched in its revised form to ensure quality tourism service providers through various training programmes in public private partnership. More than 40,000 people were trained under this CBSP scheme.

Training programmes for Guides were also restructured and refresher courses were also launched. Special training programmes for women service providers were also designed.

To give recognition to tourism as a source of income and employment generator in the economy, a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) has been developed. This enables to quantify the benefits of tourism in terms of its contribution to GDP and employment (both direct and indirect impacts). India is among the few countries in the world to develop TSA. The results of the TSA study show the contribution of Tourism in GDP (both direct and indirect) as 5.90 per cent and the share in employment both direct and indirect as 8.8 per cent .

The government supported the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) annual summit in Delhi which attracted leading investors/ hoteliers from across the world. Support was also given to the South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in 2005 and 2006 in New Delhi, which were attended by tour operators, travel agents from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Israel, UK and the Latin American/ Caribbean countries as delegates and also buyers and sellers from overseas and within the country.

Government decided to recognise the new category of domestic tour operators to give further boost to domestic tourism through quality service and to ensure greater consumer satisfaction.

A radical turnaround has been recorded in ITDC from a turnover of Rs184 crore with a net loss of over Rs37 crore in 2001-02 to a turnover of Rs379.78 crore with a net profit of Rs39.03 crore in 2005-06. This includes total turnaround in flagship Ashok Hotel from a turnover of Rs35 crore (net loss of Rs15.09 crore) in 2001-02 to a turnover of Rs93.03 crore (net profit of Rs26.29 crore approx.) in 2005-06.