ACHIEVMENTS OF THE UPA GOVERNMENT Tourism - 9 Year Summary Broad - TopicsExpress

ACHIEVMENTS OF THE UPA GOVERNMENT Tourism - 9 Year Summary Broad Policy - Promoting India as a major tourist destination so as to achieve a superior quality of life for People of India through tourism, which wouldprovide a unique opportunity for physical invigoration, mental rejuvenation, cultural enrichment and spiritual elevation. Attain the level of 6.2 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals and 725 million Domestic tourist visits in 2011-12. Positioning and maintaining tourism development as a national priority activity Enhancing and maintaining the competitiveness of India’s tourism industry Improving India’s existing tourism products and expanding these to meet new market requirements Creation of world class infrastructure Improving the visibility and attraction of India’s tourism sector to expand the potential market Augmenting human resource base in Hospitality and Tourism Sector Implementing 5 mega tourist destinations/ circuits by 2015 Promoting sustainable tourism Exhibits – The Incredible India campaign has given a thrust to tourism in India, with foreign tourist arrivals touching five million for the first time in 2009 itself A new scheme of creation of land bank for hotels has been introduced to help meet the shortage of hotel accommodation all over the country, especially in view of the Commonwealth Games. Long-term multi-entry tourist visas of five-year duration have been introduced for nationals of 18 countries till 2009 itself. A five-year income tax holiday has been given to two, three and four star hotels that are established in World Heritage Site districts with a view to encourage cultural tourism. A scheme of Visa on Arrival has been introduced for tourists coming from fivecountries, namely, Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Japan. To reinforce efforts for human resource development in the hospitality sector three newinstitutes of hotel management have been sanctioned at Jorhat, Goa and Indore New hospitality and tourism related courses have been approved in 17 institutes. 5660 young persons were given training in food & beverage services and food production under the ‘Hunar Se Rozgar Tak’ scheme in 2010 Skills of 5338 existing service providers were tested and certified to make them more employable in the market. The Visa on Arrival Scheme, launched initially for five countries, was extended to Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam from January, 2011. Efforts under the ‘Hunar-se-Rozgar ’scheme continued for creation of employable skills among youth who have at least passed the 8 th class. A total number of 6,981 young persons were trained under this scheme till 31st March 2011. A code of conduct for Safe & Honourable Tourism was adopted, along with the key stakeholders associations and industry leaders of tourism and the hospitality sector. This code has been incorporated in the guidelines for approval of service providers and classification of hotels. Hunarse- Rozgar scheme aimed at creating employable skills among 8th pass youth. Because of the vigorous efforts made by the Ministry, 11,692 persons have been trained under the scheme in 2011 exceeding the target set 2011-12 Campaign Clean India was launched in December, 2011 as an extensive social awareness campaign. The objective of the campaign is to bring trust among tourists for acceptable level of hygiene and cleanliness. The campaign is aimed to bring together the efforts of various Central Ministries, State Governments, Union Territory Administrations and private stakeholders in achieving the objectives.