HRAO lauds provision of hotels in rural areas

Bhubaneswar: Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) welcomed the Union Budget-2025 presented in Parliament on Saturday with promises made in it to boost the tourism sector across the country.
Jitendra Mohanty, chairman of HRAO, said provision in the budget for developing hotel infrastructure in rural areas is a welcome step. "Development of hotels is always necessary for tourism development in any particular area," he said.
Mohanty lauded the budget promise of facilitating e-visas.He said this would encourage tourists from South-East Asia and give a boost to inbound tourism, which is the need of the hour.
"The budget has also given a boost to medical tourism, and the provision of Rs 20,000 crore to states to develop tourism infrastructure is a welcome step. This will definitely encourage tourists," he said.
He, however, expressed concern over unmet demands, including conferring infrastructure status on hotels. "The infrastructure status to hotels would help get subsidised loans and incentives, which is not covered in the budget this time also," he said.