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New tourism policy to aim at people's participation

Our Bureau

KOLKATA, May 27

THE Union Tourism Ministry is now giving final touches to the draft national tourism policy before presenting it to the Cabinet, according to the Union Tourism Secretary, Mr M.P. Bezbaruah.

After addressing a workshop on `Needs for reforms in the tourism sector' here on Saturday, he told newspersons that three main action points had emerged during the exercise, which were related to suvidha (facilities), soochana (information) and suraksha (safety and security).

Most of these areas needed interaction and decision from various other Ministries (such as Civil Aviation) and these were now being co-ordinated. An important aspect of the new policy would be public participation. ``We have taken inputs from the lowest to the highest level'', he said.

It was the policy of the Government to encourage people's participation in tourism development through panchayati raj institutions, local bodies, co-operatives and NGOs, he said. Focused attention would be given for integrated development of identified c entres with well-directed public participation.

The new policy would be geared towards making the stay of foreign tourists memorable.

Moreover, with emphasis on IT, there would be an increased reliance on optimal use of e-commerce, use of Internet for information dissemination and increased use of portals for tourism information.

On the topic of the workshop, which was organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said that reforms were necessary in the pricing policy for domestic tourism and travel safety.

The pricing issue would have to be resolved mainly by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Also, the ground handling facilities had to be vastly improved.

``We have to take care of airport problems (inside and outside the terminal), cost of travel, hygiene and safety aspects'' he said and was particularly critical of the lack of wayside facilities.

Asia-Pacific was emerging as one of the biggest markets for both outbound and inbound tourism. ``There were more of elderly people travelling now and the marketing strategy as well as facilities would have to be revamped to take care of them'', Mr Bezbar uah said.