New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday favoured India aiming to attract seven crore tourists every year and stressed to make the country a low-cost tourist destination with modern infrastructure.
Jaitley said a huge potential exists in tourism sector, which helps in generating jobs and earn foreign exchange.
He also said that states can play an important role in the formulation of tourism policy, which the government is working on to make India a more tourist-friendly destination.
The country has huge potential in the tourism sector.
Today about 70 lakh tourists come to India… We have to make the country a low-cost tourism destination, Jaitley said here while the foundation laying ceremony of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Paryatan Bhavan.
The new complex would come up at an investment of around Rs 125 crore and would be completed in two years time.
Jaitley asked Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, who was also present at the event, to set up a bigger target of attracting seven crore tourists to India and also open offices in the countries from where large number of tourists come.
Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma who was present at the function asserted that India is globally positioned to attract more tourists and that a new tourism policy is in the pipeline.
The Centre is aiming at increasing the country’s share in the global tourism market from existing 0.68 per cent to 1 per cent by 2020.
He said the country has an average 7.7 million annual footfall of international tourists and the Centre aims to take it to one crore.
India has not tapped its tourism potential to the fullest, he admitted.
