The committee will meet the travel and tourism industry representatives within a week for its suggestions.

Besides it, the suggestions by the finance and commerce ministries to accord tourism the status of an export industry will be discussed during the meeting.

Inaugurating a joint CII and Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation (IOTO) Tourism Conference on `Positioning the Indian Ocean Rim for Tourism' here on Tuesday, the Union minister for tourism Madan Lal Khurana said the prime minister had also instructed a ministerial group to lay down policies aimed at bringing in synergy amongst the civil aviation, railways and surface transport ministries to broaden the scope of tourism infrastructure.;He said an effort in this direction would facilitate faster growth of less developed tourist destination areas in the country, this wouldform part of the action plan which would be periodically reviewed by a steering committee headed by a cabinet secretary.

Later, the (CII) and Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation (IOTO), the premier regional tourism marketing organisation signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to boast bilateral cooperation in activities that were of mutual benefit to both the bodies, exchange data and other information, develop and assist each other in establishing partnerships in tourism related projects.

Agreement also stressed greater co-operation among Asia-Pacific countries in tourism through encouragement of joint ventures and joint marketing between hospitality industry of the region.

The two bodies would meet periodically to assess progress, reframe priorities and review the MoU.