Published on : Tuesday, February 11, 2020
A National Policy for Tourism is in anticipation for five long years. The government in 2015-16 had created a draft National Tourism Policy but is still looking for cabinet approval.
In 2002, the tourism sector had a national level policy which happened almost two decades back.
Then, in 2015-16, the government—taking into accounts the wide-spread, inter-related global developments and advancements, which have had a powerful impression on tourism, prepared a new draft National Tourism Policy.
In a 2017 communiqué, the government had highlighted that the policy is still waiting for approval. Even now, the policy is being reviewed in the Ministry of Tourism prior to look for the approval of cabinet, as per a government statement on Monday.
“In the first budget of the previous NDA government, tourism was included as one of the ‘five Ts’ for the development of the country. There was a lot of emphasis on developing the tourism potential of the country and the government wanted a new policy to be in place.
Unfortunately, we have not heard much about it later. We don’t know whether the policy failed to take off due to technical or administrative issues,” said Iqbal Mulla, chief council, Global Tourism Council.
The BJP manifesto had talked of stimulating Brand India through five Ts—Technology, Tourism, Tradition, Trade and Talent.
In these five years, there haven’t been any important alterations in the salient features of the draft National Tourism Policy. The features include, aiming on employment generation, community participation in tourism development and linkages with different ministries as well as stakeholders.
The policy preserves the vision of developing and positioning India as a “must experience” and “transformational” destination for global travellers, at the same time encouraging Indians to explore their own country.
“We have been asking the government to permit public-private partnership in implementing tourism projects and maintenance of tourist spots. The tourism sector is a forex earner and the entire money remains within the country unlike the foreign investments in other sectors. Policy is necessary to give a clear direction for the development of the sector,” said Mulla.
Tags: India, tourism policy