Infrastructure plays dampener in India's tourism growth: PATA

Kolkata, Feb 26 (UNI) Even as inbound international arrivals peaked at 4.4 million in 2006, India's tourism growth was hampered by poor airport infrastructure and inadequate hotel rooms, according to a report of Visa and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Recommending a seven-point plan to boost the sector, the report entitled "Total Tourism India" mentioned that the other areas needed to be reformed were the country's aviation policy, taxation regime, bureaucratic set-up, human resource development in the hospitality sector and the Visa, credit card major, regime.

According to a PATA release today, the domestic travel " has been booming over the past 15 years, as various states increasingly woke to home-grown tourism's potential to stimulate economic growth and boost employment." Domestic trips reached an all-time high of 430 million in 2006, up by 13 per cent from 2005. The average annual growth rate has been more than 10 per cent since 2000, with the boom in low cost carriers bringing travel within the price range of millions of more households across the subcontinent, the report mentioned.

The report also showed that the international outbound trips by resident Indians peaked at around 8.3 million in 2006.

Of the total, three million were to Asia Pacific destinations, making India the region's fourth largest source market behind China, Japan and Korea.

This is expected to rise to over 3.6 million in 2007 and then increase by more than 10 per cent each year to 2009, the report added.

''India needs to accelerate efforts to improve and expand its infrastructure, particularly airports and roads, broaden its product range, especially in accommodation, and increase competitiveness,'' PATA sources said.

UNI