Rajeev Jayaswal

New Delhi, April 6: THE government has increased the budget outlay for tourism sector by over 11 per cent in the current fiscal.

"The tourism department has been allocated Rs 150 crore for year 2001-02, Rs 15 crore more than last years’ outlay for the sector," tourism secretary MP Bezbaruah told The Financial Express.

Out of the total budget of Rs 150 crore, the tourism department would spend Rs 35 crore on infrastructure development, he said adding that tourism infrastructure was one of the priorities. He, however, has said private sector participation is a must for the creation of tourism infrastructure.

"Government can act as a facilitator as funds for tourism development is meagre," he said. As against the demand of Rs 1,500 crore in the Ninth Plan for tourism development by the ministry, the Centre had allocated only Rs 500 crore for the period.

Stating that there is a need for more funds for tourism development, Mr Bezbaruah said: "Centre alone cannot achieve the desired success. The states should also take the lead. Some of the states like Kerala and Rajasthan have achieved great success in tourism development. The efforts of Andhra Pradesh in this regard is also praiseworthy."

"In order to market our destinations both domestically as well as abroad, we have allocated Rs 50 crore in this fiscal," he said.

Stressing on the need to have trained manpower in hospitality and tourism sector, Mr Bezbaruah said, Rs 30 crore has been earmarked for human resource development (HRD) in the current budget.

Stating that the tourism sector has experience some growth during the last one year, he said the growth would be higher next year due to better air connectivity, better infrastructure and increasing popularity of Indian destinations.

According to provisional figures furnished by the department of tourism, the foreign tourists’ arrival has gone up by 6.4 per cent for the calender year 2000 compared to the corresponding period last year. The foreign exchange earning has, however, gone up by over 10 per cent during January-December 2000 compared to the same period last year.

While country’s foreign exchange earning from tourism for calender year 2000 is recorded at Rs 14,260 crore, the total number of foreign tourist arrival has reached 2.64 million. In the previous calender year, the total foreign exchange earning from tourism was Rs 13,040 crore and the number of foreign tourist arrival was 2.48 million.