Rajasthan in Rs 1,750 crore tourism plan

Enthused by a 50 per cent growth in domestic tourist arrivals and a 49 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals last year, the tourism department of Rajasthan has chalked out a master plan to promote the industry.

The department has decided to spend Rs 1,750 crore during the next one year on urban infrastructure development in the state, assisted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The government has also decided to ease the existing excise tariff for the tourism industry during the next fiscal year.

"Rajasthan remained the most favourite tourist destination in India in 2003. The total domestic tourist arrivals in the state in the year was 124.83 lakh against 83 lakh in 2002. We have decided to promote tourism in Rajasthan more aggressively during the next three years," Rajeeva Swarup, commissioner of tourism, government of Rajasthan, said.

Swarup, who is also the managing director of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (RTDC), said, "With the recent announcement of the liberal tourist-friendly excise policy, we are also looking for infrastructure development at an expense of Rs 1750 crore, a portion of which is being funded by the ADB.

"We have also announced a 100-day and one-year action plan for achieving time-bound results in identified activities."

Under the new excise policy, the hotels will have to pay around 25 per cent less license fees for liquor.

In the next fiscal year, all restaurants will be given beer and wine licenses against a small license fee.

Under the new regime, license fee for selling liquor for a five-star hotel will be Rs 5 lakh against the existing Rs 7.50 lakh . For a three-star hotel, it will be Rs 1 lakh against the existing Rs 2.5 lakh.

Swarup, who was in Ahmedabad recently to promote Rajasthan more among the Gujarati tourists, said to expedite the developmental works related to tourism industry, the state government has decided to form an apex body which will have representatives from various government departments and the private sector.

"We are now working on to set up a Rajasthan Tourism Board, which will be the apex body for promoting tourism in the state. We also plan a tourism infrastructure development fund which can be used as a viability gap fund. We have introduced a new branding for RTDC: Rajasthan-Simply Colorful."

The investment of Rs 1,750 crore will be made in cities of tourism importance including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Kota and Ajmer-Pushkar.

Rs 50 crore has been earmarked for heritage conservation and Rs 10 crore will be spent on conservation and restoration of monuments under the Eleventh Finance Commission grant.

"With the huge investment during the next one year, we hope to double the tourist inflow in 2004-05 in both the domestic and overseas tourists segments," Swarup said.

RTDC which has been reporting losses for the last three consecutive years, is expected to post a profit of Rs three crore by the end of the current fiscal year.