 "ayodhya, devotee")
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Indian states will be encouraged to undertake comprehensive development of iconic tourist centres, branding, and marketing them at a global scale during her interim Budget speech.
While presenting the interim Budget 2024, she was optimistic about the scope of spiritual tourism at a time when emerging destinations like Ayodhya have seen an influx of tourists with the inauguration of the Ram Temple.
The Finance Minister said that India's economic strength has made the country an attractive destination for business and conference tourism as well. "Now, our middle class also aspires to travel and explore. The success of organising G20 meetings presented the diversity of India to grow the audience."
The interim budget proposed to greater enhance infrastructure and connectivity to facilitate domestic tourism on islands, including Lakshadweep. Sitharaman announced that both spiritual tourism and iconic tourist spots will be promoted, and states will be granted long-term interest-free loans to develop world-class facilities to promote tourism.
"This should in no doubt spur greater economic activity as the country earns, and spends, more. However emphasis needs to be also provided on developing last mile infrastructure and facilities such as hotels etc," said Pallav Pradyumn Narang, Partner, CNK.
"To support tourism, 517 flying routes have also been announced. Lakshadweep will be promoted as a primary tourist spot. The Lakshadweep port will also be built. The impetus to tourism will help smaller cities and towns in India develop and should result in investments in infrastructure across the board. This will help smaller economies grow on account of increased tourist footfall," said Pritha Jha, Partner, Pioneer Legal.
Recently SBI Ecowrap in a report titled, “Where Latin America meets Scandinavia: The Road to Salvation passes through Uttar Pradesh," said around 32 crore tourists visited UP in 2022, with an impressive footfall of 2.21 crore in Ayodhya alone. The total expenditure by these tourists exceeded Rs 2 lakh crore. Additionally, spending by foreign tourists (the state ranked 5th in number of foreign tourists visiting India) was around Rs 10,500 crore.
"Given the completion of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya this year and a melange of initiatives taken by the UP government to promote tourism, we believe that the total expenditure by tourists (domestic + foreign) in UP may cross Rs 4 lakh crore mark by end of this year helping the state Government earn an additional tax revenue of Rs 20,000-25,000 crore due to huge spurt in number of tourists during FY25," said the report.
"Given the completion of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya this year and a melange of initiatives taken by the UP government to promote tourism, we believe that the total expenditure by tourists (domestic + foreign) in UP may cross Rs 4 lakh crore mark by end of this year helping the state Government earn an additional tax revenue of Rs 20,000-25,000 crore due to huge spurt in number of tourists during FY25," said the report.
"The budget allocated funds for improving airports, railways, and roads, which could enhance accessibility and connectivity for tourists. Initiatives like promoting rural tourism and spiritual tourism could attract new segments of travellers. However, lack of major policy changes like GST rationalization or visa relaxations could limit the impact on tourism growth," said Rohit Jain, Managing Partner, Singhania & Co.
