Tourism ministry offers historical sites to private sector

The centre is ready to hand over management of a number of historical sites and monuments to the private players in the tourism sector provided they can manage them on their own, the tourism ministry said.

"Private sector can come in a big way in managing historical sites, monuments and religious places. But they must have a business model on the basis of which they can manage it on their own," Amitabh Kant, joint secretary, ministry of tourism told delegates at the "Annual Tourism Summit". "While the tourism ministry is ready to make capital investment, the private sector need to play a greater role in managing tourist destinations in the post-investment scenario," Kant said. He emphasised the need for private sector to come out with sustainable business models, which could form the basis of public-private partnership. There have been incidents in the past when the government agencies sanctioned money but later the private players could not manage the tourism destinations very well, he added. "Tourism centres like Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Varanasi hold high potential for private sector participation. In addition to this eco tourism, medical tourism and education tourism are also emerging as major tourism attractions in India, attracting a large number of foreign tourists," Kant said.

To tap the potential of emerging business opportunities in the tourism sector, Kant underlined the importance of improving infrastructure and quality of services. He said problems like rationalisation of passenger tax, lack of toilet facilities on highways, speedy immigration procedures are some of the issues that figure prominently on the government's agenda. The government was addressing these issues at the highest level and a number of steps are being taken to make Indian tourism destinations world class, Kant said.

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