In its report tabled in Parliament, the Standing Committee on Tourism and Culture reprimanded the Ministry for spending Rs 194 crore on overseas promotion saying the expenditure was not commensurate with foreign tourist arrivals.
The Sitaram Yechury-led Committee also pointed out that tourism potential in Indian islands was more than that in popular destinations such as Thailand and Singapore but insufficient facilities have marred the tourism scope of these places.
"Even though India has vast variety of tourist attractions from ancient to modern, the global tourism share is less than 0.6 per cent annually in terms of world arrivals. The Committee feels that this percentage is just unacceptable, and what we are aiming at is to acheive 1 per cent during the 12th Plan," it said.
On the overseas tourism promotion, the Committee said Rs 194 crore were spent on this activity upto February 2012 which was not commensurate with the return in the form of number of foreign tourist arrivals.
"The Committee is surprised that with so many attractions -- religious, tourist, health, why we have not been able to attract enough tourists to India," it said.
The Committee said it has "doubts" about the overseas promotion campaigns and asked the Government to have a relook into the neccessity of various tourist promotion offices abroad and the efficacy of various officials under Overseas Promotion and Publicity. (MORE)
