Indian tourism shows signs of recovery: Kumari Selja

Madrid (Spain), Jan 20 (ANI): Union Minister of Tourism and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja on Wednesday said tourism in India has begun to show signs of recovery from global economic meltdown.he said in December 2009, tourists' arrivals grew by over 21 percent.

Addressing the fifth Tourism Leadership Forum on the "Prospects and Challenge of Tourism Recovery for 2010/2011" here, Selja informed that one of the reasons for the tourism sector in India not being impacted as much as rest of the world was the good performance of the Indian economy.

Despite the global economic recession in 2008 and 2009, Indian economy has continued to have good growth. India's GDP in 2008-09 grew by 6.7 percent, she added.

"During April-September, 2009 India's GDP witnessed a growth of 7 percent, whereas the global economy is estimated to have a negative growth in 2009," she claimed.

"The quantum jump in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Hotel and Tourism sector in the years 2008 and 2009 is also indicative of the positive scenario. Most of the major international hotel chains including Starwood, Hilton, Carlson, etc. have either already come to India or are in the process of doing so," said Selja.

"These factors, coupled with the performance of in-bound tourism in India the last few months, are very encouraging for tourism in India. With the global economy too showing signs of recovery, the international tourism can be expected to revive worldwide," she added.

The minister also spoke about the number of policies initiatives taken by the Indian Government for generation of employment in the country. In this regard, Selja spoke on the Prime Minister's mission for employment generation and skill upgradation.

The other high profile participants at the forum were Christopher Rodrigues, Chairman of the British Tourism Board, Zhu Shanzhong, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration and Charles Petruccelli, President of American Express Global Travel Services.

Michael Frenzel, Chairman of TUI, AG, Geoffrey Kent, Chairman of World Travel and Tourism Council and Angela Grerekou, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of Greece also participated in the event. (ANI)