80 amusement parks in the pipeline

India is set to witness deluge of amusement parks across the country with an estimated investment of Rs 2,000 crore in the next few years.

According to an estimate by the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI), the apex body of such establishments in India, 80 parks will come up given the future potential of the industry as the business has grown manifold in the last decade.

IAAPI figures reveal that revenue generated by parks will touch Rs 1,350 crore by end 2004 from the current level of Rs 400 crore. But there was a still yawning gap in demand and supply, industry watchers believe.

"To materialise the latent potential, we need to sort out a few things first. To begin with, there has to be a uniform entertainment tax across the country. This industry is still in a nascent stage and needs protection from the government," Balwant Chawla, president of IAAPI said.

Secondly, there are issues of infrastructure and promotion. Government must help in providing necessary civic infrastructure like access road and other things, Chawla noted.

Moreover, there are hardly any mention of parks during promotion of tourism by states and the Centre. "This should be included as an important part of the whole package," Chawla noted.

Chawla noted that capacity utilisation of existing parks were really poor which lengthen the pay back period for an investor. "These roadblocks must be cleared if the industry has to grow," he added.

A Sengupta, chairman of eastern region of IAAPI raised the need for closer co-operation among parks, tour operators and event managers. "Tour operators bring 40-50 per cent of the total visitors who come to parks in the west. In contrast, the ratio is only 10 per cent. This must increase for sustained growth of such parks," he noted.

State plans to set up tourism advisory council

West Bengal is going to set up a Tourism Advisory Council for the development of tourism in the state, principal secretary, department of tourism, government of West Bengal, said.

The Council, to be headed by the chief minister as chairman and the tourism minister as the working chairman, will also include representatives of industry.