Simplification of travel has become extremely important in the present scenario where people are travelling more and more for personal as well as professional reasons. “We are planning to come up with a Single Permit system - north of Delhi applicable to all northern states namely Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, J&K to make seamless travel possible for tourists, especially tourist buses and cars coming here,” said K K Sharma, Adviser to the Administrator, Chandigarh while addressing the Conference on Seamless Tourism under the aegis of CII Tourism Fest, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry in association with Department of Tourism, Chandigarh Administration.

Punjab was the principal partner state for the conference while Madhya Pradesh was silver sponsor; Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu  & Kashmir were the focus States while Tamil Nadu and Delhi were the participating states. China, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia were silver sponsors in the international sector and Turkey and Ethiopia were the participating countries.

“To boost tourism in India, we need to develop a system under which a tourist doesn’t have to pay taxes at entry points of all states, rather a single permit tax would be applicable to all regional states. For this, we need integration between senior representatives of all states, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Home Ministry. We would meet and discuss the same with all concerned along with CII representatives to make this possible soon,” Sharma informed.

“Land has been earmarked for a Convention Centre and we are also coming up with a ‘Tourist Facilitation Centre’ soon, which is already under construction half a Kilometre from the Chandigarh Capitol Complex. The aim of the Centre is to make visit permits easy and smooth for tourists,” he further said.

“All that we need to project Chandigarh in the tourism sector is better marketing of the facilities and integrated taxation regimes,” he added.

“Chandigarh really needs a bigger and better Convention Centre to house huge exhibitions and conferences,” said Arjun Sharma, Chairman, CII Tourism Fest 2013 and Managing Director, Le Passage to India.

“Tourism industry needs to be reckoned as a national priority considering its immense socio economic impact and the potential to generate huge employment. The potential is six times more than the automotive sector, twice more than communication sector, four times more than the mining sector and so on. It is imperative that the government notifies a Tourism Industrial Policy soon to give a boost to the sector considering its immense potential.”

“Further, state spending all across India should increase along with creation of Integrated Tourism Circuits (ITCs). There is also a need to market India well by organising more International events,” Sharma added.

“At least one Theme cum Amusement Park like Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Europa Park etc in all northern states would be the key game changer for tourism sector’s growth in north,” said Nakul Anand, Chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism & Executive Director, ITC Hotels.

“To promote tourism and earn huge foreign exchange, we need to coordinate with countries like China for easier visa norms.

India’s share is a meager 0.64 % of World Tourism contribution which can rise tremendously if there is a supportive policy and regulatory framework in place, especially at state level. For this, India also needs to upgrade its Visa issuance systems and use IT to issue ‘Smart Visas’ and also collect passports online.