Happy days are here again

India is once again becoming the choice of many tourists. Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) went up by almost 10 per cent in the month of May this year compared to May last year. ‘Four Seasons’ recently created the costliest tourism package for its clients and it is encouraging to know that India (Mumbai and Agra) is on the list of countries to be visited. On another front, Indians travelling abroad can now carry

` 25,000 instead of ` 10,000. RBI has attributed this move to facilitate travel requirements of Indians travelling abroad as well as foreigners visiting India. The PR exercise for India in foreign countries recently announced by the government, along with undertaking of cleaning up and restoration of archeological monuments, will greatly help grow numbers for inbound traffic.

A lot of excitement is in the air for the Travel & Tourism industry. With the new government recognising tourism as an important part of economic growth and employment, everyone is hoping for major changes and finally a substantial increase in the tourism budget. There are expectations from this government to understand and resolve issues being put forward by the industry to them. Some of the issues that need resolution in this industry are, rationalisation and uniformity of taxes across states, reduction of service tax, granting of industry status, modernisation in smaller tourist towns, safety issues for women travellers, improved infrastructure, actual implementation of electronic visas, etc. We now need to see how many of these issues will get a signature on the dotted line.