Rajasthan scores home run at IITIS
Rajasthan signed a total of 56 MoUs worth ` 922 crore during the recently-concluded Incredible India Tourism Investors’ Summit in New Delhi. MICE, heritage and adventure tourism score high in the list.
Exuding confidence on the success rate of the signed MoUs, Ashutosh A.T. Pednekar, Director-Tourism & Managing Director, Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, said, “The best thing is that these are all firm MoUs, which means that land is available for all these projects. Thus, success rate of all these MoUs is going to be extremely high. We had presented around 103 investible projects, worth around ` 3,000 crore, for which we have invited investment. We have actually seen a great response in the field of MICE, heritage and adventure tourism.”
Rajasthan Tourism has also extended full support to the private sector for investing in the state. Roli Singh, Secretary-Government of Rajasthan, said, “We have the Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, and we have also upgraded our tourism policy with a very specific tourism unit policy that offers a wide range of definition of tourism units, right from spa, resort, boutique hotel, heritage hotel, convention centres, adventure sport, eco sport, eco tourism, and everything related to tourism. So under that definition, we have the incentives which we are showcasing to the investors, including relaxations, so that land conversions take place in time; no duties for change in land laws and a number of waivers.”
Rajasthan is blessed with plenty heritage tourism products, which are a good investment catch. Pednekar, said, “The USP of Rajasthan is heritage, and we have put up a number of heritage properties for investment. Apart from that we have identified very important land sites for MICE tourism as well as adventure tourism. There are also upcoming destinations like Sambhar Lake, where we have a massive land parcel available, which we are now going to develop in a focused manner.”
Pednekar revealed that the Central Government has given funds to Rajasthan Government for investment in the long pending Sambhar Lake project. “We have already started spending money in that area. We are already developing rail track, temples, lake facilities, cycle track, camp sites, light & sound show, and laser show. Now we are thinking of doing fairs and activities on a routine basis, since Sambhar has a very strategic location, being situated between Ajmer and Jaipur. There is a huge scope for niche areas like weddings, medical and wellness tourism,” he added.
Homestays is another area on which the Rajasthan Government is laying emphasis. “We are already in touch with the aggregators in this sector. We can work innovatively with them and ensure that our hotel capacity is utilised properly, gets augmented and is available online as well. For medical tourism, we have created some projects around Jaipur, Pushkar, and Ajmer. In Shekhawati area, one private player is coming up with a project centred only around wellness,” Singh says.
She revealed that they work with a number of B2B partners and are trying to widen their network as well. Pednekar added, “We’d want a good trajectory of growth, both in terms of domestic tourist arrivals and foreign tourist arrivals. Also we’d like the average tourist spend in the state to increase, and that would happen if the average tourist stay in Rajasthan would increase in terms of duration.”
We had presented around 103 investible projects, worth around ` 3,000 crore. We have actually seen a great of MICE, heritage and adventure tourism