Tourism Ministry to attract investment of Rs 50,000 crore in tourism

The national tourism investors summit 2016 is set to begin from September 21 - 23, 2016. 

This tourism summit focuses on changing the perception towards India and make the country tourist dectination choice. 

Nearly 150 particpants from various walks like hotel, luxury travels etc have registered for the summit. 

Mahesh Sharma, Minister of state for tourism and culture said,"Through this summit we will be able to attract investment above Rs 50000 crore in the country's tourism sector."

The summit will be chaired by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and many states. These states will showcase more than 600 investible projects to the investors. 

States will also showcase their strength and interest to develop themselves as favourite Tourist Destinations. From the states are Gujrat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh which have given the confirmation for the same.

So far, the Tourism ministry has granted projects worth Rs 2500 crore in many states under Swadesh Darshan Scheme. Some of the projects are circuits development like Buddha Circuit, Krishna Circuit etc.

Looking at the recent Kashmir issue, the minstry is taking every possible measure to display the state has a safe tourist spot. Ministry has sanctioned worth Rs 500 crore projects for Kashmir only. 

Going ahead, tourism ministry also plans to bring a long pending  National Tourism Policy before Cabinet for further approval. 

To strenghten tourism further in India, the ministry plans to set up Invest India desk at for facilitating the investors and easing all the approvals for investing in tourism sector.

As on July, 2016, foreign travelling arrivals (FTA) were 7.36 lakh as compared to 6.28 lakh during the month of July, 2015 and 5.69 lakh in July, 2014. 

Foreign exchange earnings (FEEs) increased to Rs 14,319 crore in July 2016 as against Rs 11,982 crore in July 2015 and Rs 10,284 crore in July 2014. 

So far in this year, FEEs from tourism has grew by 15% to Rs  87,384 crore  versus Rs 76,017 crore with a growth of 9.5%  of previous year.