"We have miles to go and in the process, we have to face major challenges in technology and in private sector partnership," Bezboruaha said after giving away national tourism awards for 1998-99 here.

He said necessary steps ought to be taken to generate enough private investment for development of tourist infrastructure in the city.Maintaining that although the government was optimistic of a bright future for tourism and there were 160 million domestic tourists, international tourism was yet to be developed up to the expectations.

The tourism awards are presented to classified hotels, approved travel agents, tour operators and tourist transport operators in recognition of their performance to promote tourism.

Awards of excellence in 10 categories including for excelling in tourism writings were presented. Kerala was presented the best tourism performing state award while Sikkim got the national honour among the North-Eastern states for 1998-99.

In Five and Four-Star categories, the Lake Palace hotel and Shiv Niwas Palace (Udaipur), Hotel Imperial and Oberoi Maidens (Delhi), Taj Garden Retreat (Madurai), Castle Mandawa (Shekhawati) and Samode Haveli (Jaipur) were given the national awards.

Nirula's and hotel Fifty Five (Delhi) and Resorte Marinha Dourada (Goa) were also given national awards in their categories. Taj Bengal (East), the Leela Sahar (West) and Taj Coromandel (South) won regional awards in the Five-Star Deluxe category while Ramada Hotel Palm Grove (West), Fisherman's Cove (South) and the Park (East) won it in the Five-Star category.

Other hotels and restaurants winning awards included the Fariyas Hotel (Mumbai), Taj Garden Retreat (Thiruvananthapuram), the Kenilworth (Calcutta), Hotel Bodhgaya Ashok (Bodhgaya), Casino Hotel (Kochi), Hotel Tunga Paradise (Mumbai), Hotel Circular (Calcutta), the Desert Resort (Mandawa, Rajasthan), Hotel Samudra (Thiruvananthapuram), Bangaram Island Resort (Kochi), Hotel Lindsay (Calcutta), Dona Alcina Resort (Goa), Park Balluchi Restaurant (Delhi), Pandhal Restaurant (Erunakulam), Mocambo Restaurant (Calcutta) and Jewel of India (Mumbai).

National awards for travel agents, tour operators and tourist transport operators were given to TCI, SITA, Cox and Kings, Designer Holidays, Swagatam Tours and Travel, Creative Travel, Rainbow Travels, Travel Pals, Travel Inn, Asiad Holiday, Sari, First Tours, Razdan Holiday, Sea and Sky, KTC, Karachi Taxi Co and T S Narayanan.