Travel News August 2007

Policy

Visa-on-arrival likely in Delhi, Mumbai by 2009

Special sops for foreign tourists

A tourism infrastructure fund on cards

Visa-on-arrival likely in Delhi, Mumbai by 2009
August 2, 2007

In a move that will help attract more foreign tourists into the country, India may allow visas on arrival facility in the upgraded and modernised Delhi and Mumbai airports by 2009, according to a media report.

To start with, the service would be on offer on a trial basis for travellers coming from select countries, tourism & culture minister Ambika Soni told the country’s Economic Times.

The ministry has set an ambitious target of attracting 10 million tourists into the country by 2010. Around 4.2 million tourists visited the country last year. The minister said senior officials of the Union home ministry have assured her that the government might consider extending visa-on-arrival facility once the two major airports in Delhi and Mumbai are upgraded to handle more passengers.

The ministry of home and external affairs has been resisting this long-pending demand from the tourism industry, citing security concerns. Soni said the move will happen once airlines start providing advance passenger information to security agencies. Several neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia already offer the facility. 

Source: ttnworldwide.com

Special sops for foreign tourists
July 18, 2007

Visitors from the SAARC and BIMSTEC countries would be charged the same rates of the entry fee to ticketed monuments as Indian citizens, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni has announced.

Addressing the MPs of the Consultative Committee attached to her ministry, she said though the debate on charging a uniform entry fee from other foreign visitors was still on, there was a strong point in continuing with the present differential rate of tickets.

The entry fee for visitors from the SAARC and BIMSTEC countries has been put on par with Indian citizens as an acknowledgement of the common heritage between India and its neighbouring countries and promotion of regional solidarity.

Giving details of plan expenditure on restoration and maintenance of monuments, Soni said the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) proposals, amounting to Rs.9.33 billion, were more than three times the provisions during the earlier plan.

A substantial amount of these allocations would be spent on making monuments more attractive through programmes like Light and Sound shows at the World Heritage Sites, establishment of tourist facilities and better signage.

Those who attended the meeting included Chander Kumar, N.K.S. Chauhan, Pankaj Chowdhary, Parasnath Yadav, Chandan Mitra, Barun Mukherjee and Surendra Motilal Patel.

Source: MSN India

A tourism infrastructure fund on cards
July 1, 2007

India may soon have its first tourism infrastructure development fund. Some reputed financial institutions including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are behind the process of creating the fund, pegged to be more than $1.5 billion, sources close to the development told SundayET.

Once the fund is created, infrastructure companies would be roped in to build roads, power stations, sewage etc in the country’s leading tourist destinations. At present, many renowned tourist sites don’t have these basic infrastructure facilities. When contacted, an ADB spokesperson in India said, “We have no details with us. It’s at a very initial stage.”

ADB, however, has similar experience in funding tourism infrastructure in countries like Vietnam. In fact, Australia too had earlier created such funds for developing infrastructure in tourist destinations. It’s expected that leading global financial firms, which have professional fund managers with a knowledge on tourism, may also join the fund.

“Though no clear roadmap has been laid for creating such a fund, talks are on,” a senior ministry of tourism official said. In fact, the proposed fund will encourage infrastructure companies willing to get involved in road and power projects in tourist destinations.

N D Mehra, director (commercial), DS Constructions, said it was imperative to create better infrastructure and provide greater connectivity to tourist destinations. “A tourism infrastructure fund is a welcome step as this would enable established and experienced players like us to selectively bid for projects,” he said.

He, however, added that in India, tourist destinations are seasonal in nature and do not attract great amount of traffic throughout the year. He added, “hence, to enable public-private partnership (PPP) in the tourism infrastructure projects, companies would require viability gap funding or subsidy from the client to ensure viability.”

Source: Economic Times