Union Minister Shripad Naik today said the growth rate of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) has more than doubled to 9 per cent since June 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre.
The Union Minister of State for Tourism said this while addressing a session of Indian Heritage Hotels AGM session here.
"Growth rate of Foreign Tourist Arrivals, after the Modi government in the Centre took over, has more than doubled to 9 per cent since June 2014 till now as compared to previous corresponding months when it was just 4.1 per cent," he said.
The growth rate of FTAs during subsequent month in July this year recorded as much as 3 times the growth realised in the corresponding month of 2013, and the inbound tourism has thus been showing remarkable improvement during the tenure of the BJP government, Naik said.
"Modi government has for the first time recognised tourism as a key sector which can contribute to India's foreign exchange earnings. This is the reason why tourism features so prominently in the government's action plan as spelt out in the current Union budget," he said.
"FTAs in India during the period of January-August 2014 were 46.84 lakh with a growth of 7.4 per cent, as compared to the FTAs of 43.60 lakh with a growth of 4.9 per cent during January-August 2013 over the corresponding period of 2012," he said.
Naik said that there has been a growth of 16.9 per cent in August 2014 over August 2013 as compared to a growth of 9.1 per cent registered in August 2013 over August 2012.
"Compared to growth of 4.1 realised in 2013 during June, the growth rate of FTAs in June 2014 after the new government came in power has more than doubled to 9 per cent. The growth rate during subsequent months in July 2014 recorded as much as 3 times the growth realised in the corresponding month of 2013," the Minister claimed.
Naik said the Ministry of Tourism is setting up an Indian Culinary Institute at Tirupati as a non-profit Central Autonomous Society.
He said the institute will go a long way addressing the concerns relating to the preservation of heritage Indian cuisine, research, documentation, museum and resource centre and specialised training in culinary skills.
