Rs 11,000 cr required for tourism infra: PwC

FHRAI's convention from Oct 15

PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated that India will require an investment in excess of Rs 11,000 crore in infrastructure development for promoting tourism and doubling capacities of hotel rooms to 1.8 lakh rooms by 2010.

At present, India has about 1,570 quality hotels and 85,481 hotel rooms. Only 22 per cent of the foreign tourists occupy the premium category of hotels which contributes about 65 per cent of the hotel industry revenues.

It is the budget hotels which include four-star and three-star that a significant chunk of the foreign tourists visit of about 78 per cent and the revenue is about 53 per cent.

Addressing a press conference, M P Purushothaman, president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), recommended that there must be a national policy on tourism and uniform policies regarding hospitality should be followed by the Centre and all the state governments.

"With this as the backdrop, and marking the golden jubilee of the apex body of the hoteliering and catering industry, FHRAI is organising a three-day convention titled 'The road ahead- focus on infrastructure development for tourism growth'. The convention is to be held between October 15 and 17 in Chennai," he said.

He further said that the emphasis of the convention this year is infrastructure development for tourism promotion as there is an urgent need to tap the full potential of tourism.

The chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry will be the guests. It is estimated that around 1,200 delegates from across the country and from neighbouring countries would participate in the convention.