Tourism Departments of Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand and Jammu and Kashmir are for integration of taxation regimes of these states to make seamless travel across north a reality and in turn boost tourism in the northern region.
Senior Tourism officials of these states who assembled today at the CII to chalk out a blue print for the first CII Tourism Fest to be held in Chandigarh later, observed that presently, the tourists have to face a lot of difficulty owing to different tax levies while entering these different northern states. The CII Tourism Fest would strive to resolve this bottleneck on priority basis by creating a Chief Minister?s Forum and getting all stakeholders together at one platform from 5-7 December in Chandigarh?, emphasised Navjotpal Singh Randhawa, Director ? Tourism, Government of Punjab while addressing a Press Conference on CII Tourism Fest at CII NR Headquarters, here today.
Sachin Kurve, Additional Secretary ? Tourism, Government of Uttarakhand talking about the state which has been hit hard on tourism front in view of recent tragic incidents at Kedarnath said that ?Only 20 per cent of our tourist destinations have been affected by the calamity that struck Uttarakhand on 16-17 June. Rest 80 % of the tourist places like Nainital, Ranikhet, Mussorie, various national parks and birding areas etc are completely safe for stay, adventure and travel and still there is a 95 % decrease in tourist traffic in these places. Tourism sector contributes around 25 % to our state?s GDP and the recent calamity has led to a loss of Rs 12,000 crore, that is 11 % of the state?s GDP. Fear psychosis is the main reason for the loss arising due to lack of occupancy which we need to remove at the earliest. For this, we have planned Adventure Tourism session from 15 September in the state?.
Randhir Brar, Executive Director, Le Passage to India observed that ?Considering the current dwindling of rupee, Indian tourism sector has the potential to grow tremendously because of cheaper costs. Hence we should make the most of it and present north as a major Tourist Destination. The CII Tourism Fest is one such step in this direction which would have participation of 5000 members as part of Trade Delegations from States like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh in addition to countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Germany, Finland, Philippines, China, Malaysia will be visiting the event that will enhance one to one business meetings to boost tourism here?.
?200 Buyers from across the country will be hosted that will allow special inflow of Special packages/ Itineraries by State Tourism Authorities & Foreign Tourism Boards. This will ultimately increase inflow of International and Domestic Tourists, giving push to the Hospitality and Transport industry etc?, said Man Mohan Singh, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council.
A K Malhotra, General Manger ? Tourism, CITCO, Chandigarh said that ?If integrated well, North can attract tourists for various forms of tourism like Eco tourism, religious tourism, cultural tourism, hill tourism, adventure, architectural, farm, heritage, weekend and lifestyle tourism.?
Subhasish Panda, Director ? Tourism, Government of Himachal Pradesh said that ?We are soon launching a ?Sustainable Tourism Policy? to give incentives to the tourism sector and enhance its contribution further to state?s GDP?.
