Other States - Rajasthan   

Rajasthan steps to woo more tourists

Special Correspondent

Better accommodation facilities and provisions for additional investments planned

JAIPUR: The new hotel policy adopted in Rajasthan this past month is expected to attract more tourists to the desert State by providing them better accommodation facilities and making provisions for additional investments in the hotel sector.

Reviewing the progress of the policy at a high-level meeting here over the weekend, State Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi spelt out the Government's commitment to evolve tourism as a focal point of economic development. Mr. Zutshi said a favourable atmosphere for attracting investments for hotel business would be built up in the State. Affirming that hotels were directly connected with the tourism sector, Mr. Zutshi said there was a shortage of nearly 20,000 rooms for lodging of tourists and the gap had further widened during the last three years. He pointed out that Rajasthan was the first State to formulate a hotel policy with the objective of providing amenities to tourists.

The Tourism Secretary pointed out that against the arrival of 83-lakh domestic tourists in 2002, a total of 1.88-crore tourists visited the State in 2005. Similarly the number of foreign tourists went up from 4.28 lakhs in 2002 to 11.31 lakhs in 2005. However, the number of hotels in the State did not register a corresponding increase during the period.

Mr. Zutshi said the new policy, designating Tourism Department as the nodal agency for the hotel business, would attract investments to the sector and create employment opportunities for thousands of people.

The Urban Development, Local Self Government and Panchayati Raj Departments and Jaipur Development Authority were asked in the meeting to establish "land banks'' to facilitate construction of new hotels in various categories. Mr. Zutshi suggested that the Panchayati Raj Department's rural tourism scheme could be linked with the hotel policy.

Mr. Zutshi said the Directorate of Tourism had established a hotel cell comprising four officials for dealing with the hotel projects and other activities. The cell will function in close coordination with other departments.

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