Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has stated that his government is committed to turn Delhi into a major international tourism hub. Kejriwal was recently speaking at a seminar in Delhi to discuss the business agenda of the AAP government which took over the reins of the national capital early this year. In his speech to the captains of the industry and also local trade bodies, Kejriwal did not mince any words in underlining that tourism is a top priority area for his government.
“The government is aware about the potential of Delhi tourism and our larger endeavour is to have a vibrant programme to make Delhi a prominent international tourism hub,” Delhi CM said. According to an estimate, about 62 percent of international tourists travelling India pass through Indian national capital but their length of stay in Delhi is too short not resulting in expected business benefits. “It has been brought to our notice that tourists touching Delhi spend less than 24 hours here. Given Delhi’s amazing offerings, their stay has to be extended to 2-3 days which will create huge number of jobs. We need active participation of the private sector to make it happen,” Kejriwal said while responding to concerns expressed by tourism sector stakeholders that tourists are side tracking Delhi.
At the seminar, Kejriwal further asserted that his government which is barely few months old is presently engaged in doing away with the existing procedural bottlenecks in the city governance which will also help the promising sectors like tourism. “Sometime back, a delegation of event managers told us that big-scale events are shifting to other cities because 27 licenses are required here. We immediately convened a meeting with concerned authorities and have done away with several licenses which were mandatory,” he informed. According to Delhi CM, his government has also provided a major relief to the city’s hospitality sector by making amendments in the luxury tax norms. “We were told that hotels in the NCR locations are charging luxury tax on the actual tariff whereas in Delhi, it was on the published tariff. We have accordingly changed this to help the hotel units in the national capital,” he added.
