The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) on 16 Feb unveiled the ‘Vision 2035’ road map outlining strategic pillars to achieve tourism goals to mark the 75th year of India’s Independence.
Nakul Anand, chairman of FAITH said FAITH’s vision statement for Indian tourism entails making Indian tourism preferred and loved by global and domestic tourists, creating economic and wealth creation opportunities for tourism, travel and hospitality entrepreneurs for India, positioning tourism rightly as a social economic job and infrastructure creator for India, and becoming a role model sector for sustainable and inclusive growth.
These goals target 75 million inbound tourists, aim for 150 billion of foreign exchange earnings from inbound tourism, eye 7.5 billion domestic tourism visits, and target 15 crore direct and indirect employment from tourism, among other objectives.
The vision document proposes four strategic pillars to achieve the goals, including a shared national tourism approach, value accretive regulations, investment drivers and market excellence. It recommends tourism to be a concurrent subject as a shared execution between the Centre & states, and setting up of a National Tourism Council of PM and CMs, among others.
The vision also suggests travel credit for domestic travel and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), single-window e-clearance for all projects and national seamless tourist transportation. The investment drivers suggest setting up 200 centres of excellence across states through Swadesh Darshan and Prasad schemes each with to 0.1 million foreign tourists and 20 million domestic tourists.
Moreover, establishing five mega tourism zones is also recommended to achieve the outlined objectives, besides having global tourism brand ambassadors in all markets and Rs 5,000-crore annual average tourism expenditure by the Centre and equivalent by states.
