To revitalise the travel and tourism industry, which has been lately reeling under the impact of the economic crisis and the recent terror attack in Mumbai, the ministry of tourism has chalked out an action plan, which aims to put more fuel in the promotional drive of ?Destination India?.

According to sources, the ministry has almost doubled the financial assistance for promotional activities undertaken by travel agents, tour operators and hoteliers as it plans to declare 2009 as the ?Visit India Year?. ?To give a boost to the tourism industry, the guidelines of the market development assistance (MDA) scheme have been reviewed and revised to enhance the benefits and financial support,? said an official of the ministry of tourism.

Under the new scheme, sale-cum-study tours will now get assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh against an earlier Rs 75,000. For trade fairs and exhibitions, the limit has been extended to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1.1 lakh earlier. Also, the ministry will now provide financial assistance for participation in three international trade fairs and exhibitions per year from the earlier two.

However, the upper ceiling of foreign exchange earnings of applicant companies for eligibility under the scheme has been upped from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore now.

With 2009 being declared as the ?Visit India Year?, those who travel to the country next year would be offered special packages in 2010 and 2011. ?The concept is that those who visit India in 2009 would there after experience India?s rural tourism, eco tourism, adventure tourism, wellness tourism in specially worked out packages in 2010 and 2011.?This would boost repeat tourism in the country,? said the official. However, details are still be being worked out by the ministry in partnership with hotels, airlines and travel agents.

While the months of January, February and March proved to good for foreign tourist arrivals in the country, the global financial crisis cast its long shadow over the industry thereafter. Though both, foreign tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings have been higher than last year, the growth has been significantly lower than expected.

Foreign tourist arrivals during the January-November 2008 stood at 4.84 million as compared to 4.48 million during the corresponding period of 2007. In terms of foreign exchange earnings, 2008 also fared better as compared to last year. The January-November period saw a total of Rs 45,647 crore this year as against Rs 39,281 crore in the same period in 2007, up 16.2%.

Medical tourism, which has been picking up in the country is high-up on the ministry?s package, with details of financial assistance to accredited hospitals for promoting medical tourism in overseas markets being chalked out by the officials. Moreover, the ministry will also offer a subsidy of 25% in participation fee, to the travel trade and state governments for participation in the India Pavilions set up by the ministry of tourism or Indiatourism offices overseas at major international travel fairs & exhibitions till the end of the financial year 2009-2010.

With the Incredible India campaign already a hit, the ministry will now expand its scope by launching an online media campaign. ?While all major portals across leading tourism generation markets for India will be covered, this year, the thrust has also been on selecting regional portals which are strong in the respective countries,? said the official.? Some of the portals which will be featured in the current campaign are MSN, Yahoo, Google, baidu.com, khaleejtimes.com, wallstreetjournal.com etc.

Apart from this, familiarisation tours are being organised for international media. The ministry is setting up a large India Pavilion at FITUR 2009 in Madrid to promote India in the Spanish market. Incredible India will also have a visible presence at ITB 2009 in Berlin with the participation of state governments and travel trade bodies. ?An outdoor Incredible India campaign will also be undertaken in Berlin, to coincide with ITB,? informed the official.