New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that the state governments will be encouraged to set up a 'Unity Mall' for the promotion and sale of 'One District, One Product', GI and other handicrafts items. The finance minister also said that states and cities will be encouraged to take up urban planning.
Tabling the Budget, Sitharman said: "States will be encouraged to set a 'Unity Mall' in the state capital or the most popular tourist destination in the state for the promotion and sale of 'One District, One product' and GI products and other handicraft."
Giving a major boost to the travel and tourism industry that was reeling from the challenges of the Covid pandemic, Sitharaman said: "The country offers immense attraction for domestic as well as foreign tourists. There is a large potential to be tapped in tourism. The sector holds huge opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship for youth in particular."
Fifty tourist destinations will be selected through challenge mode to be developed as a whole package for domestic and international tourism. The Centre has already launched schemes like Swadesh Darshan and Dekho Apna Desh to boost tourism. The finance minister said that states and cities will be encouraged to opt for urban planning in a big way. She said that all cities and towns will be enabled for 100 per cent transition of sewers and septic tanks from manhole to machine hole mode.
Cities will also be encouraged to increase creditworthiness for municipal bonds, the minister said. On June 25, 2015, the government launched the Smart Cities Mission. Hundred smart cities had been selected through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018. Domestic tourists fell from 2.32 billion across the country in 2019 to 677 million in 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted the tourism industry, the ministry informed Rajya Sabha in December.
Even foreign tourists saw a massive dip from 31 million in 2019 to 7.1 million in 2020 and a little over a million in 2021. “Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, does not maintain data on revenue generated from the tourism sector. However, the Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) through tourism in India for the years 2019 to 2021 is Rs 2,11,661cr in 2019, Rs 50,136cr in 2020 and Rs 65,070cr in 2021,” the ministry had informed the Upper House.
