Budget 2019: Tourism sector demands infra push, ease in regulations

Demanding the government to focus on the infrastructural development to push tourism industry in India, tourist companies have urged the Modi government to announce some concrete infrastructural plans for the tourist circuit in India. They are demanding that the government should increase infra spend towards roads, air, rail and inland waterways from 22 per cent to 30 per cent.

Commenting upon the matter Ankur Lohani Kumar, Marketing Head, Clarks Amer told Zee Business online, "All the tourist circuit in India needs better infrastructure and connectivity. There should be a road map announced in this budget to increase air and road connectivity in these tourist circuits. Inception of new trains in the region and opening up of domestic airports for tourists can serve this purpose for Indian tourists." Lohani went on to add the move would help government to generate new job opportunities and push the Indian tourist industry to a larger extent."

Binny Sebastian from Alila Fort Bishangarh told Zee business that lowering the taxation will may affect business for hotel industry but not as much for Luxury segment. "It may increase sales possibilities for MICE business coming to upscale properties where the reduce taxation helps to cushion the total expenses," he said. 

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#Budget2019 | बाजार की सरकार से क्या है मांग? क्या इस बजट बाजार के लिए होंगे बड़े ऐलान? देखिए #MarketMaangeMore में कार्नेलियन कैपिटल एडवाइजर्स के विकास खेमानी की #BudgetKiBaat @vikaskhemani @AnilSinghviZEE #LTCGHatao pic.twitter.com/BcHyCigVk9

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) January 28, 2019

"For opportunistic travellers who plan weekend getaways, the taxation changes can drive them to heritage properties. Additionally, incentives offered for hospitality projects increase investments and will be overall good for the business ecosystem," he added.

Sunil Gupta, MD and CEO, Avis India told that the government needs to spend more on infrastructure this year. 

"India is rapidly growing to be a large market for travel and tourism industry and is expecting international tourist arrivals to reach 30.5 million by 2028, therefore the government should focus more on improving the infrastructure of the country in terms of developing more roads and maintenance of tourist places for increasing the economy from tourism. The government needs to allocate much more towards infrastructure this year as last year government increased infra spend towards roads, air, rail and inland waterways by almost 22 per cent to 5.97 lac crores, wherein we are expecting it to get an increase to 30 per cent this year," he said.

Heena J Akhtar, Co- Founder, TripXOXO said that the government should ease the regulations and create a holistic tourism infrastructure to attain an annual growth of 15-20 per cent in the coming years. "The increasing budgetary provision will certainly boost the digital and payment infrastructure for high level transaction sectors. The growing disposable income in the market is changing the pattern of consumption which will eventually generate immense potential for direct and indirect employment," Akhtar said.