Asserting that India is globally positioned to attract more tourists and that a new tourism policy is in the pipeline, Union minister Mahesh Sharma today said the Centre is aiming at increasing the country's share in the global tourism market from existing 0.68 per cent to 1 per cent by 2020.
The Union Minister of Culture and Tourism was speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of 'Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Paryatan Bhawan' at Mandir Marg in central Delhi.
World Tourism Day is observed on September 27.
"We get 7.7 million annual footfall of international tourists and this does not include NRIs. Our aim is to take it to one crore... We have 0.68 per cent of world tourism share and the aim is to make it to 1 per cent by 2020," Sharma said.
He also said that India has not tapped its tourism potential to the fullest.
"We have 73 per cent of the Himalayas falling in India, 7,500 km-long coastline, and the Centre will be incorporating new strategy in the 'new tourism policy' to be announced soon," he later told reporters on the sidelines of the event.
The 'Paryatan Bhawan' will be spread over nearly 23,000 sq metres and is projected to be completed in 18-24 months.
The Rs 125-crore project, which would include ground plus three storeys and two basements with stack parking facility, would be designed and executed by New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
"It will be a green building with platinum standard. It will have solar-power rooftop system and rainwater harvesting facility. The building that is similar in nature in our areas would be the Indira Gandhi Paryawaran Bhawan in Jor Bagh, also a green building," NDMC Chairman Naresh Kumar told PTI.
Asked about project duration, he said, "We will try to finish it by 2017."
Sharma, asked by reporters on the naming of the building, said, "Deen Dayal stood for the last man in the line, and his name means prosperity, which we seek to bring for the people through tourism.
"And, the Culture Ministry is in 'Shastri Bahwan', Civil Aviation Ministry in 'Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan', so this way we are remembering all our past leaders," he said.
On the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and postage stamp issues, he said, "We don't want to undermine the Nehru-Gandhi family, but there are other leaders also whom we would like to commemorate."
The Centre, on World Tourism Day today, has made entry to Taj Mahal and nearly 200 other ticketed monuments around the country free. "We could do it every year, but it has not been decided yet," Sharma added.
