HYDERABAD: The Uttaranchal Tourism Development Board (UTDB) has announced 15 per cent commission to travel agents instead of the usual 10 per cent between November 15 and April 14.

The UTDB Director (Marketing and Publicity), Arun Srivastava, at a recent road show said that in addition to the latest offer, the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam was giving discounts up to 50 per cent of the rack rate on packages and hotel bookings for the period.

Private players

He spoke of Uttaranchal's incentives to private players in the sector. For example, a 15 per cent capital investment subsidy up to a maximum of Rs. 30 lakhs is being given under the concessional industrial package by the Central Government and a 10 per cent one time capital grant is being given on the principal loan taken from designated financial institutions -- up to Rs. 25 lakhs, Rs. 50 lakhs and Rs. 75 lakhs for one, two and three star and heritage category projects respectively.

Other incentives include exemptions from luxury tax for new tourism units for five years from the date of commencement, from entertainment tax (ET) for new multiplex projects for three years, exemption from ET for new ropeways and new amusement parks for five years from the date of being fully functional and from Income Tax for five years.

International tourists

Mr. Srivastava said international tourist arrivals to Uttaranchal had gone up from 44,000 in 2001 to 1.4 lakhs in 2005. "We are a new State and conscious efforts are being made for development of religious, adventure, cultural and wildlife tourism. Our communication channels with private channel partners are always open," he said.

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