-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Goanetters annual meet in Goa is scheduled for Dec 27, 2005 @ 4pm | | | |The Riviera Opposite Hotel Mandovi, Panjim (near Ferry Jetty/Riverfront)| | Attending.......drop a line to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventure tourism picking up in India, infrastructure needed
New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI): With tourists, from within and outside the country, showing a marked preference for adrenaline releasing sports over other attractions, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) has asked the government to facilitate infrastructure for it. "More and more tourists inside the country are now asking for adventure sports. We need government's support to meet the rising demand from the tourists both from within and outside the country," President ATOAI Ajeet Bajaj told PTI. "With the government support we can attract half a million foreign tourists and the domestic adventure tourism market can see a ten-fold growth in next five years," he said. Adventure sports include trekking, rafting, mountaineering and other water sports, camel/jeep/horse safaris, bike tours, sailing, ballooning, hand gliding and other aero sports, skiing, wildlife safaris, fishing, scuba diving, tribal tours and heli skiing, he said. The industry has witnessed a growth of over 500 per cent during the last decade, but infrastructure has not swelled accordingly. "Import duty to bring in sophisticated equipments required from the sports should be scrapped," he demanded. Currently, the operators end up paying over 4 per cent of the equipment cost as import duty. "We request the government to scrap the duty so as to help us establish infrastructure that could hold and attract tourists from the foreign soil." About the growth projections, he said on the domestic front there is an annual increase of 40 per cent tourists while the number of international holidaymakers is growing at the rate of seven per cent per annum. Out of about 20 lakh adventure tourists, international tourists contribute up to 10 per cent. While the rest 18 lakh are from within the country itself. "Ratio of foreigners and Indian adventure tourists is now 10:90 as compared to 60:40 five years ago," Bajaj said. On the trained manpower in the sector, Director Maxxfun Holidays (a Delhi-based tour agency) Surpal Singh Deora said: "there are limited numbers of institutes that offer serious courses while most of the sports are managed by untrained people. There is an urgent need to have more such institutes that could offer serious courses." About the states with possible geographical terrain, he said: "Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttaranchal are few states which are the major contribute to the growth of adventure tourism in India." On the growth of the sector in India, Bajaj said: "India as an adventure tourism destination has grown in popularity both in the domestic and international market. The industry has seen a boom in the last decade but this is only the tip of the iceberg." Given the right impetus, India could attract half a million foreign adventure tourists and the domestic adventure tourism market can see a ten-fold growth in next five years, he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------