Pranab Mukherjee
NEW DELHI: India, known world-wide for its cuisine, should exploit this “asset” to attract more foreign tourists and build infrastructure that travelers can look forward to, President Pranab Mukherjee said here.
“One of the most attractive assets that India can offer is our cuisine. There is no parallel to the range of local specialties that a traveler can savor as he travels through India,” he said at the National Tourism Awards function here.
This, coupled with proper infrastructure which responds to the expectations of the most traveled visitors, could give a further push to wooing both foreign as well as domestic travelers, he said.
India saw about 6.65 million foreign tourists arriving last year, which was a growth of 5.4 per cent in such arrivals over the previous year.
Foreign exchange earnings in this segment was also estimated to be about Rs 94,500 crores for 2012, a significant 21.8 per cent increase over the previous year, he said.
Mukherjee said due attention to safety and quality standards of food would instill more confidence in foreign as well as domestic tourists. In this regard, he said the government will soon open an institute of excellence for culinary specialization and research.
He said good infrastructure is the need of the hour as a visit to a world renowned heritage site can be marred by poor approach roads or the absence of public facilities en-route or by unpleasant sights and odors.
The increase in disposable incomes of Indian citizens have given them an increasing capacity for leisure travel today. There is also an abundance of attractive offers, new and improved air and rail connections and a general expansion of the tourism infrastructure in all states of India.
Its multiplier effect has been strong and has led to creation of jobs in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, he said.
Andhra Pradesh bagged the best state award for comprehensive development of tourism for 2011-12 in the ‘rest of India’ category while the ‘best heritage city award’ went to Warangal.
The President lauded the ‘Incredible India’ campaign in boosting the tourism sector, saying it was a “well-conceived and concerted effort in brand promotion”.
“I take this opportunity to stress the importance of a highly specialized and motivated work force. It is important for Government and private sector to collectively generate adequate manpower – both in terms of quantity and quality,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of sustainable, “green” tourism, urging the stakeholders to be more conscious and proactive with regard to tourist destinations in their respective areas.
Hotels, museums and monuments should consciously reduce their use of energy and water. They should try to decrease generation of waste. Transportation, heating, cooling, washing and lighting could be made greener.
Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi said his ministry would be setting up a tourism information helpline which would be multi-lingual, in nine world languages, to provide round-the- clock information to international tourists.
While Andhra Pradesh bagged the first prize in the best state award for comprehensive development of tourism, the second prize in this category was won by Rajasthan and the third prize by Gujarat.
Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir won the best prize in the category of comprehensive development of tourism in J&K and North East states only.
The award for best tourism film went to Gujarat for its campaign ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’ starring Amitabh Bachchan.
The best airport in the ‘Class X cities’ went to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Hyderabad while the best tourist friendly railway station award went to Mysore railway station. –PTI
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