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World tourism market in 2020 put at $ 2000 b; India to gear up using IT

Union Tourism Secretary Madan Prasad Bezbaruah says India will require an investment of Rs 450 billion in the next five years to meet the worldwide phenomenal growth in the tourism industry.

''By 2020, over 1.6 billion people around the world are expected to take to travel (as a pastime) and spend $ 2,000 billion. It is high time both public and private sectors took a massive initiative to tap a significant portion of the worldwide spending on tourism,'' he told a seminar on Indian Software Industry -- the Midas touch, organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce in Calcutta.

He called for enough information technology support for the promotion of the tourism industry in the country and said both tourism and software industries were poised for a phenomenal growth in the country.

Bezbaruah emphasised the need for a partnership between the public and private sectors for the growth of tourism in the country.

''Both industries need more private investment and information technology can play an important and significant role in the promotion of tourism,'' he said.

He, however, described the export incentive policy as discriminatory against the tourism industry and said the country's foreign exchange earning through tourism was the second best after the textile industry.

UNI