PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Tourism Minister P Rajavelu has sought formulation of separate guidelines to exempt interstate permit fee and entry taxes for tourist vehicles.Speaking at the Second South Regional Conference of Tourism Ministers in Kollam, Kerala on Saturday, he said that such a move would encourage domestic tourism and help integrate South Indian markets. Rajavelu said that promoting interstate tourism would boost economic growth and ensure employment opportunities directly and indirectly.The Minister also sought financial assistance by extending the ‘Hunar se Rozgar’ scheme to the private sector in Puducherry, which was involved in the training of school dropouts for the hospitality sector. The UT has a steady annual growth of 6 per cent continuously in terms of tourist arrivals. The Publicity campaign “Peaceful Pondicherry, Give Time a Break” undertaken in the last 10 years, has yielded enough results by drawing private investments and tourists. The number of hotel rooms has increased from 1,000 in the year 2000 to 3,000 in the year 2010, while tourist arrival has increased from 5 lakh in 2000 to 10 lakh in 2010. The average occupancy of hotel rooms is 59 per cent round the year.During the last five years, around `650 crore of private investments had been made in Puducherry to provide 1,000 rooms of both star and non-star categories. Additionally, `200 crore worth investments are in the pipeline. To facilitate private sector participation without much strain on capital investments, 100 acres of land along the seashore were acquired under the ‘Land Bank’ scheme to develop a “Special Tourism Zone” under PPP mode, he said.To promote Educational Tourism, lands are being acquired to develop Science City, Marine Park and Thematic Museums with private participation, he added.
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