By IANS
New Delhi : In a bid to popularise the ‘bread and breakfast’ scheme and enhance the number of rooms available to travellers, tax sops will be given to such establishments, Tourism Minster Ambika Soni said here Saturday.
“India needs to develop tourism infrastructure. The bread and breakfast scheme will get tax exemptions and guest houses will be given rebates,” Soni said at the annual convention of the Indian Association for Tour Operators (IATO).
Under the bread and breakfast scheme launched last year, individual house owners can offer up to five rooms, or 10 beds, with air-conditioning, attached baths and Indian or continental breakfast to tourists for a pre-published rate.
Soni said some 18,000 rooms were available under the scheme and asked house owners interested in the scheme to get registered through IATO, the apex body for tour operators in the country.
According to Subhash Goyal, president of IATO, India needed some 100,000 rooms immediately, with the requirement in the national capital alone – which accounts for 35-40 percent of overseas tourists – at around 20,000.
“By 2010, before the start of the Commonwealth Games, Delhi needs another 30,000 rooms, taking the number to 50,000. This is less than three years from now and families must use the bread and breakfast scheme,” Goyal told IANS.
He said the government should also relax visa rules and make the land-use policy transparent and friendly towards the hospitality sector so that private sector players do not have to run from pillar to post for various clearances.
The tourism minister said India as the birthplace of at least four religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism – provided excellent opportunities for religious tourism and tour operators must capitalise on this.
“We have a wide variety of tourism in India and we must focus on at least four – medical, heritage, ancient and religious tourism. In fact, we are getting fiscal aid from Japan for the restoration of Buddhist sites in the country,” she said.