The tourism ministry is betting big on adventure tourism, buoyed by the customs duty waiver on the import of adventure sports equipment announced in the budget.
The ministry will organise roadshows in Australia and New Zealand in September. The earlier schedule was in July.
“The roadshows are being organised by India’s tourism office in Sydney as part of its promotional activities in the current fiscal. For this, Rs 12 crore has been allocated,” tourism minister Kumari Selja said.
The fund will be utilised for participating in travel fairs, publishing brochures, organising seminars and workshops, promoting Indian food and cultural festivals and getting tour operators and opinion makers to visit the country.
“Such initiatives will help draw tourists from the US, Australia and New Zealand where people are keen on adventure holidays,” said Tejbir Anand, president of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India.
In the budget for 2009-10, water sports equipment such as inflatable rafts, snow skis, water skis, surf skis and sailboards have been exempted from customs duty. This was one of the demands of the tourism ministry.
At present, only members of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India are allowed to import equipment after paying customs duty. The high costs involved in the import discouraged many from buying the sports equipment.
Vendors, who can import in bulk, are not allowed to do so, leading to a shortage of equipment.
Tourism was growing at an encouraging pace in 2007 before the global economic recession led to a decline in foreign tourist arrivals.
Around 5.36 million foreign tourists visited the country in 2008 against a growth of 14.3 per cent a year ago.
The first five months of 2009 continued to show a sharp decline in arrivals compared with the corresponding period in 2008.
But in June, around 341,000 tourists visited the country against 340,000 in the year-ago period and 310,000 in June 2007.
Tourism contributes 6.63 per cent to the GDP and provides 8.89 per cent of the total employment of the country.
“Though several regions have a tremendous potential of adventure tourism, the growth is being hampered because of the existing import policy,” said C.V Prasad, managing director of Travel Express.
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