Kalam blueprint to promote tourism

Tourism minister Renuka Chowdhury and President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in New Delhi on Friday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar New Delhi, April 8: President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam today asked the government to devise measures to raise tourist arrivals into the country to 15 million in the next five years and 25 million by 2015. Foreign tourist arrivals were put at around 3.7 million in 2004. Inaugurating the fifth global travel and tourism summit here today, the President suggested the need to promote multinational tourism in specific areas with Saarc and Asean countries. He said the promotion of multinational spiritual tourism connecting important Buddhist centres in India, Nepal and Thailand operated by a single airline could also be considered. Kalam asked the industry to form an inter-ministerial co-ordination system for the development of infrastructure in terms of hotels, road connectivity, air connectivity, communication, IT-enabled services, healthcare and human resource development. “It is essential to build, own, operate tourism as a public-private partnership venture,” he said. Citing the example of Maldives, he asked the model to be pursued for the promotion of island tourism in Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar. In Lakshadweep, the country could also provide hinterland tourist package due to its nearness to Kerala, giving an additional promotional proposition to the tourism industry, he said. Maldives gives islands for development as tourist spot on lease to private enterprises who in turn invest and develop the whole island with self-contained resorts. “There was no government investment needed for the project,” he said adding that Maldives had attracted tourists twice its population last year. Recalling his visit to Dubai last year, the President said the ruler had expressed his intention to increase the tourist arrival by five times. Once this decision was taken, a whole lot of ministries such as aviation, surface transport, works and health got activated, he said. “This was the type of integrated response that I found in the whole government to fulfil the national objective. We have to take the message coming out of this experience and plan for multiple requirements simultaneously for promoting tourism in our country,” he said. Suggesting that scholars who have done research on tourist assets in the country should teach various categories of tourist managers and workers, Kalam said an encyclopaedia of Indian tourism should be evolved within the next three years. “This should become the training manual for the tourism personnel and also enable the provision of tourist guide to visitors,” he said. Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/