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“The contribution of tourism in total employment of India during 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 were 10.2%, 10.8% and 11.5% respectively,” Indian Tourism minister K Chiranjeevi informed Lok Sabha, lower house of India parliament.

He said the information was not available for 2012-13 and 2013-14.

5.33 million tourists visited India till Oct-end this year

The minister said foreign tourist arrivals in India during from January to October 2013 were 5.33  million with a growth of 4.0%, as compared to foreign tourist arrivals of 5.12 million during the corresponding period last year.

He said an advisory has been posted on the Ministry of Tourism website www.incredibleindia.org  indicating that India remains a safe destination for international tourists especially women tourists.

“The Tourism ministry has advised state government in the country  to follow tourism-friendly policies like allotting land sites on revenue sharing basis, granting extra Floor Space Index (FSI)/Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for Hotels, Creation of Land Banks, Single Window approach for promoting Hotel Projects, Rationalization of Taxes etc., for the growth of tourism sector in the country,” Chiranjeevi said.

Five year tax holiday for hotels

The minister said to encourage the growth of hotels, five year tax holiday has been announced for 2, 3 & 4 star category new hotels located in all UNESCO declared ‘World Heritage Sites;’ (Except Mumbai and Delhi) which start operating between 01.04.2008 to 31.03.2013.

“The Central Bank of India – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has de-linked credit for hotel projects from Commercial Real Estate (CRE), thereby enabling Hotel Projects to avail credit at relaxed norms and reduced interest rates,” he said adding  External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms relaxed by the Ministry of Finance to solve the liquidity crunch being faced by the hotel industry for setting up new hotel projects.

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