To address the emerging fervour for domestic tourism, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said projects for port connectivity, tourism infrastructure, and amenities will be taken up on our islands, including Lakshadweep.
This will help in generating employment also, said the finance minister in her Interim Budget Speech 2024.
“States will be encouraged to take up comprehensive development of iconic tourist centres, branding and marketing them at global scale. A framework for rating of the centres based on quality of facilities and services will be established. Long-term interest-free loans will be provided to states for financing such development on matching basis,” she added.
The finance minister also said the success of organising G20 meetings in 60 places presented diversity of India to global audience. Our economic
strength has made the country an attractive destination for business and conference tourism. “Our middle class also now aspires to travel and explore. Tourism, including spiritual tourism, has tremendous opportunities for local entrepreneurship.”
Tejinder Gupta, partner and leader (tourism & hospitality industry) of Grant Thornton Bharat, said, “Tourism, including spiritual tourism, has adequate opportunities for promoting enterpreneurship. Long-term finances will be made available to the states to finance tourism, which will attract the inflow of both local and foreign tourists.”
He added that the promotion of spiritual tourism and domestic tourism is India’s way of building soft power by reinforcing the Indianness amongst the Indian diaspora across the world. This is a great way of building diplomatic power in a multi-polar world.
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