The budgetary allocation for the ministry of tourism has been slashed from ₹2,500 crore in 2020-21 to ₹2026.77 crore this year, in a blow to the tourism industry which is reeling from huge losses due to the coronavirus crisis.
The budget has allocated ₹1088.03 crore for development of tourism infrastructure.
With the coronavirus crisis restricting not just foreign tourist footfalls into the country but also keeping domestic tourists at bay, the budget has focused on pushing funds for promotion and publicity to help woo tourists back.
Out of the ₹668.72 crore allocated towards promotion and publicity, ₹524.02 crore is for the overseas market and ₹144.70 crore has been kept for domestic tourists.
With the coronavirus crisis bringing the tourism sector to its knees, the union budget has allocated a sum of ₹63.65 crore for capacity building for service providers and ₹138.65 crore for training and skill development.
FAITH, the policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India said that “lack of immediate direct support in budget has disappointed the Indian travel and tourism industry”.
In a statement, Nakul Anand, Chairman-FAITH said there was a need of corpus of at least ₹2,500 crore for global branding budget to enable sub branding of three tourism segments -- Indian MICE, Indian adventure, Indian Heritage under the Incredible India main brand to enhance each of these verticals’ global outreach.
{{/usCountry}}In a statement, Nakul Anand, Chairman-FAITH said there was a need of corpus of at least ₹2,500 crore for global branding budget to enable sub branding of three tourism segments -- Indian MICE, Indian adventure, Indian Heritage under the Incredible India main brand to enhance each of these verticals’ global outreach.
{{/usCountry}}"Not addressing any of these critical measures in the budget announcement has thrown the industry into a state of shock and deep dismay. The tourism, travel and hospitality industry is battling the worst in century crisis from the impact of Covid 19, revival from which will not be seen minimum for the next financial year till vaccination is fully undertaken with no observed side effects in all source and destination markets," the statement said.