Five states -- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh – signed 86 MoUs worth close to Rs.15,000 crore during the recently concluded Incredible India Investors’ Summit.
Gujarat leads the tally with signed pacts worth nearly Rs.9,000 crore, followed by Karnataka (Rs.2,600 crore), Rajasthan (Rs.1,000 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs.500 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs.12 crore), according to an official statement.
“With many more projects in the pipeline... IITIS-2016 met the desired objectives and highlighted tourism investment potential in the country,” said Minister for Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma while assuring investors that his ministry would assist and support them in making India the tourist destination of choice.
The B.R. Shetty Group has shown keen interest in investing Rs.450 crore, while Costa Cruise and Triveni Singapore will be investing close to Rs.750 crore and Rs.800 crore, respectively, in India, according to the official statement.
The summit was organised by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with industry body CII and the Tourism Finance Corporation of India. The three-day summit was aimed at inviting investments from foreign and domestic players to fund 700 tourism-related projects from 29 states requiring over Rs.50,000 crore.
Annual eventWhile stating that the summit will now be an annual event, Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi said the ministry has decided to set up a task force, with representations from the states and other stakeholders, to take forward certain policy measures and attract more investment. The ministry will be setting up an investor facilitation desk to handhold investors and facilitate projects, Mr. Zutshi said.
Foreign tourist arrivals in June 2016, grew 7.3 per cent to 5.50 lakh as compared with 5.12 lakh during the month of June, 2015. For the January-June period of 2016, 41.86 lakh visited India registering a growth of 8.9 per cent compared with the same period the previous year. The U.S. accounted for 22.2 per cent of arrivals followed by Bangladesh (20.69%), the U.K. (6.84%) and Malaysia (3.90%) in June.
