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The Incredible India campaign has been a major success and has seen with a significant growth in foreign tourist arrival in the country. But can branding exercise alone sustain this growth unless India offers better tourism products with world-class infrastructure?

No doubt the Incredible India campaign has been able to attract a large number of tourists. But more importantly, the campaign has been able to capture the high-end tourists who are spending a longer time in India. This is evident from the UN-WTO?s latest report which indicates that even though countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore may be having larger number of foreign tourist arrivals, the foreign exchange earned per foreign tourist of India is much higher (at about $1,920) compared to that of Indonesia ($905), Thailand ($830), Singapore ($835) and Malaysia ($520). These facts confirm that India is attracting travellers from across the globe who are spending more time and money compared to the other South East Asian countries.

Tourist traffic is growing significantly, not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of quality. This has been possible because India is able to provide quality products, better services and improved infrastructure. There is a scope for further improvement and it is being done. Roads, ports and airports are being developed through public-private participation. Our Incredible India campaign have taken all stakeholders, including private players, on board.

There is a general feeling that tourists prefer going to Thailand, Malaysia and other neighbouring countries over India as these countries provide better hotels and transport system at much lower states.

Tourist arrivals in some of neighbouring countries are higher but we are earning more foreign exchange. In 2007, India received 5 million foreign tourists and had a foreign exchange earning (FEE) of $12 billion. Thailand earned a little more than us from about 14 million tourists during the year. While India has been a long-haul tourist destination, Thailand and Malaysia are short-haul.

We are also trying to attract tourists for short-haul destinations. We have identified 20 heritage sites across the country which would be developed into short-haul destination for tourists. We are in active consultation with the civil aviation ministry to provide seamless airlinks between these cities. Some important heritage sites are Hampi, Ajanta and Ellora, Bodh Gaya and Taj Mahal. We would also convert more sites into short-haul tourist destinations. For 2008-09, we have a budget of about Rs 1,000 crore to develop tourism infrastructure.

You have been actively pursuing the issue of allowing visa-on-arrival to tourists from 18 countries. Though this has been on paper for quite some time, nothing concrete has materialised so far. Has the delay put India in a disadvantageous situation compared to neighbouring countries?

We have succeeded in offering medical visas to tourists visiting India for treatment along with a companion. We are hopeful that visa-on-arrival would also be allowed to the nationals of 18 countries once the home ministry clears it. The scheme should be implemented shortly after the completion of Delhi and Mumbai airports redevelopment. With advance passenger system put in place in the flight, we don?t think there should be much of a concern in allowing visa-on-arrival.

On a pilot-basis, we would soon allow this to the nationals of a few countries. To expedite the visa process we have asked various High Commissions and embassies to outsource some of the work if they are not able to process visa applications due to staff shortage. Even China is outsourcing some of the visa formalities to private agencies.

Tourism in India is largely a regional phenomenon. While certain areas are booming with activities, some are still unexplored even as they have potential. Why?

Things are changing fast. States are taking interest in tourism promotion as it is a major source of employment. Various states want to put their art and heritage-rich cities and towns on India?s tourist map. At the Centre, we could only facilitate modernisation and development of better infrastructure. We are providing financial assistance to states for implementing infrastructural projects. For example, on our initiative, the Japanese government built the road connecting Biharsarif to Bodh Gaya and Rajgir.

And today we feel that this road stretch is one among very few good highways in Bihar. We have asked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to provide land so that we may further develop world-class highways connecting main city and the tourist places. We are aiming to put in place world-class tourism infrastructure across the country. We, along with railways ministry, are already running special and luxury trains to tourist destinations and plan to increase their numbers.

How do you see the tourism sector contributing to the overall growth of the economy?

The tourism sector is an economic driver. It directly and indirectly employs about 8.9% of the total work force in the country. Globally, 8.1% people are employed in the sector. We expect a total tourist arrival of 10 million in 2010 which will lead to huge employment. We are promoting rural tourism, food, medical, tribal, shopping and tea garden, among many other types of tourism. We are also encouraging adventure and sports tourism like rafting and mountain climbing. We expect to have significant share in the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) market.

At present, the world MICE market is estimated to be around $ 280 billion of which South Asia?s share is $80 billion. India gets just 8% business of the $80 billion South Asian MICE market. We are developing 127 rural sites into tourist destinations. The sites would showcase local culture, cuisine, heritage, art and craft. The tourism ministry is providing Rs 50 lakh to district collector to develop necessary infrastructure in and around the tourist circuit. We are also providing Rs 20 lakh to local people for capacity building of places of stay.

There is acute shortage of hotels and manpower to handle increasing number of tourists. What is being done in this direction?

We have increased the floor area ratio (FAR) in many cities allowing hoteliers to create more floor area. We have also launched bread and breakfast scheme which allows households to offer a paying guest kind of an accommodation to tourists. To do away with shortage of manpower we have tied up with hotels to train people and build up a guide bank. The hotel chains would do this in lieu of getting permission to increase floor area ratio.