Bureaucratic hurdles, corruption, public infrastructure in a shambles, transit woes and deteriorating law and order are among the factors that deter NRIs from investing in India’s tourism sector.
This was made clear by NRIs participating in a seminar on tourism organised here on Monday in connection with the 11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations. Speaking at the question and answer session, one of them said that they are often treated like ‘Non-Required Indians’ in India. “Leave alone safe roads, the country does not even have clean public toilets,” lamented another.
In his address, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, Amitabh Kant, who as Secretary of Kerala Tourism played a key role in launching the State into the world tourism map, spoke of how tourism employs much more people than the IT sector.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr Kant invited members of the Patel community, who opened 21,000 motels in the U.S., to invest in India’s hospitality sector where there is shortage of quality hotel rooms.
The president of Asian American Hotel Owners Association Alkesh Patel said that members of the association own 45 per cent of the hotels in the U.S.. “India needs more classified hotels and we can share our expertise in this. India has huge potential in medical tourism and NRIs can become the country’s ambassadors in the sector.” The Director of Kerala Tourism Rani George invited entrepreneurs to invest in water sports, for which a study is on.