Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Culture and Tourism K.J. Alphons has blamed the lack of political determination on the part of the State government for the poor infrastructure in the State.
Addressing a Meet the Press programme organised by the Thrissur Press Club on Saturday, he stressed that infrastructure development was key to tourism development.
“Kerala is in the 8th position in the country in tourism development though the State is blessed with nature’s bounty. Tamil Nadu is in the first position. When trains in China run at an average speed of 350 kmph, we still take five to six hours to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi. Along with strong political will, people’s co-operation is necessary for infrastructure development,” he observed.
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Kumarakom has been selected as one of the 12 iconic sites for tourism development in the Budget. The entire Vembanadu lake region will be developed under the project, he said.
Mr. Alphons said that the Union government aimed at doubling tourist inflow into the country, thereby doubling income in the sector in the next three years. He added that the objective was to make India the second largest global tourist destination by 2018.
“Around 1.10 crore tourists visited India last year which was 15.8% more inflow than the previous year. This is when the global growth in the sector was only 5%. The country earned $27 billion in 2017 from foreign tourists, and foreign exchange earning went up by 20.2%,” the Union Minister said. He added that the tourism sector contributed 6.88% to the country’s GDP. The sector also provides 43 million jobs.
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Marketing culture
“Our focus is on how to project Indian culture to attract foreign tourists. We have made a one-minute video on Yoga – The Yogi of the Racetrack – which has already been viewed by 22 million people. We are planning more videos, including those on Ayurveda,” Mr. Alphons said, adding that the tourism sector should also enable regional development. People from different layers of society should benefited from growth in the sector. The Minister said that the country has to re-invent the IT sector to cope with automation and Artificial Intelligence. The Centre created 113 lakh new jobs in the lT sector in the last three years, he added.
On the possible threat posed by the broader coalition of Opposition parties against the BJP, he asked how the collation of parties immersed in corruption can pose challenge to the BJP.