Amritsar to host religious conference

The Centre's department of tourism and culture, in association with Ficci and the tourism department of the Punjab government, will host a religious conference in Amritsar to promote religious tourism in the state and to discuss about various modalities in order to give fillip to the tourism sector.

This was stated by Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, Ambika Soni in Amritsar. She said, "In this conference the projects that were proposed for the promotion of religious tourism, like restoration of heritage and religious sites etc, will be short listed. Besides government functionaries, private players will also participate in the conference."

She added, "Also, the department has already identified the heritage and religious sites that are to be included in the Freedom Struggle Circuit. We are also planning to have national and International media campaign to promote the Freedom Struggle Circuit."

Earlier, since tourism in Punjab was predominantly religious, the tourism department had submitted a budget plan of Rs 25 crore to the Centre for promotion of religious tourism.

The plan included Freedom Struggle Circuit (Chandigarh-Patiala-Nabha-Sunam-Malerkotla-Ludhiana-Khatkar Kalan- Dhudiki-Jaito-Faridkot- Amritsar), religious circuits and destination development( Patiala-Wagah border-Amritsar). She further said the holy city had more potential than Vatican. Talking about infrastructure status being given to hotels, she said, "In this regard we had already proposed the plan to the finance minister that hotels be allowed to avail tax benefits and other incentives at least till 2010 and the proposal is under consideration."

Commenting on importance of the tourism sector in the economy, Soni said, "As compared to IT and agriculture sectors, tourism has huge employment potential and it can give employment to youth. So, we are taking every step to give a fillip to this sector through PPP route (Public-private Partnership). The economy is growing at the rate of 8 per cent, but I perceive that, if the tourism sector is exploited fully, achieving a growth rate of 9 per cent is not a big deal."

She further assured to give full support of the eyewitnesses of Jallianwala massacre tragedy. She added that the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) would take up preservation work of historical and heritage monuments in the state. She further said some heritage buildings had already been identified for restoration work.