Maharashtra to come up with tourism policy

Realising the state's tremendous tourism potential, the Maharashtra government is coming up with a tourism policy, which is expected to boost investment and employment in the tourism industry.

Besides, the state has launched 'Unlimited Maharashtra' advertisement campaign through newspapers and television channels to attract tourists during the summer vacations.

"The theme of the campaign is to show the world that Maharashtra can offer you complete tourist experience right from silver beaches of Konkan, rugged mountain forts in Sahyadris, wildlife sanctuaries in Vidarbha and cultural treasure of Ajanta and Ellora caves. We can offer to the tourist what Goa, Kerala and Rajasthan can offer together," said Bhushan Gagrani, managing director of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).

He added: "About 38 lakh foreign tourist visited India, last year and about 35 per cent of them visited the state. However, there is no mechanism to tell how many of them actually visited interior parts of the state or how many of them used Mumbai only as a transit point. One can only get the rough idea by sales figure of tickets at Ajanta and Ellora where tickets for foreigners and Indians are priced differently."

"According to those figures, one can say definitely that around 5 lakh tourists visited the state and thumb rule used in the tourism industry is that you peg the figure of domestic tourist at the ten times of foreign tourists. And we want to increase this figure of nearly 55 lakh tourists per anum by 10 to 12 per cent every year," Gagrani added.

Under the new tourism policy state will offer sops like concessions in stamp duty, electricity duty, octroi, and property tax at designated tourist spots to investors who invest Rs 25 lakhs or more in building hotels, and other tourist infrastructure, Gagarani said.

He pointed out: "Investment of Rs 10 lakh in tourism sector creates employment for 40 persons and it can offer jobs to unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled persons, unlike the IT sector or manufacturing."

Admitting that the state was slow in realising its tourist potential, Gagarni said, "There had been historic reasons for this as the state has historicaly focussed on attracting investment for industry."

Tourism contributes a mere two per cent to the state's GDP, unlike neighbouring Goa's 40 per cent or Kerala and Rajasthan, where it is around 25 per cent. Besides, coming out with a new policy,the state has also undertaken upgradation of the tourist infrastructure at Aurangabad (Ajanta-Ellora) and in Konkan area under various projects, Gagrani said.

"We are constructing new roads and widening the existing roads around Aurangabad, a new terminal is being constructed at Aurangabad airport, tourist complexes are being constructed, restoration of paintings is being done by spending Rs 300 crore and similar projects worth around Rs 100 crore are underway in Konkan," Gagrani added.