Tourism minister Kumari Selja has a tall order. While she has to deal with the combined impact of the global economic crisis and other factors like the Mumbai terror attacks and swine flu, she also has to ensure that there are adequate facilities for tourists who are going to visit during the Commonwealth Games next year. In a free-wheeling talk with FE?s Surabhi Agarwal, she talks about the issues of room shortage, visa-on-arrival and monitoring of the funds given to the states. Excerpts:
It has been one year since the terror attack on Mumbai, which had badly impacted the foreign tourist arrivals in the country. How is the situation now?
The indicators are okay in the sense that overall the numbers have been improving. But, keeping in mind the situation worldwide and the scare built up around swine flu, I would say that the arrivals started looking up in May but again went down because of swine flu. Now, the trend is again amending.
But, the growth in the foreign tourist arrivals (FTA) is still in negative. Your comment please.
Yes, that is true. But from a negative of minus 17% which was the situation in the beginning of the year it has come down to a decline of around 0.9%. While the growth numbers are still negative, they should buck the trend. In any case, next year we should see better numbers due to the Commonwealth Games and with the facilities being built around it. Also, the world is talking about the recession receding now, so the global economy is expected to be better next year.
How successful has been ?Visit India 2009? initiative, which was launched to beat the slowdown blues?
The success of the campaign is positive in terms of improvement in FTA and foreign exchange earnings, which have shown growth despite arrivals being down. That surely shows it has had impact combined with the other efforts like Incredible India campaign and the roadshows.
What about the shortage of rooms which is expected during the Games?
I am always told two things. One is that there is a shortage of rooms. And the other is that you are not going to get so many visitors. So what are we preparing for? Firstly, there is not going to be any shortage of rooms. According to projections, there will be one lakh visitors, which equals to 40,000 rooms. Around 10,000 are already there and the rest we are working on.
Secondly, they say you will not get so many visitors. The answer to which is?doesn?t matter. We are building the infrastructure for a long-term, it is an asset and visitors are not going to stop coming to India after the Games. Commonwealth Games should be seen as an opportunity for the country to improve its tourist infrastructure.
But are the adjoining states of UP and Rajasthan readying the infrastructure for the tourists that might come to Delhi and may also visit Agra and Jaipur?
Definitely, we are promoting the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra heavily. And it is not just about the accommodation. One of the problems faced by tourists was while travelling from one state to another. So we took it up with the transport ministry and they have decided they will facilitate seamless travel between the states. Target is to have the system up and running before the Games.
You had recently met home minister P Chidambaram on the issue of visa-on-arrival. What was the solution?
Yes, I did speak to the home minister and he has promised that he will look into it. But, I don?t think we should push the home minister as the ministry has to go into all aspects of security.
There are efforts to put in place a mechanism to monitor the funds given to states for tourism projects. When do we see something concrete happening?
We are giving money. It has to be well spent. We are also planning another regional conference, one has already taken place. We are also setting up a system, where there is a third-party monitoring of the development of the projects. In my other ministry?housing?we have a system, where there is a social audit, a third party monitoring of projects among other things. I am trying to bring in a similar system here as well.